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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1983

Relative frequency and diurnal variation of high cold clouds in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific

The percentage of cold clouds less than or equal to 240 K was tabulated from Nimbus-5 data in 2 deg latitude-longitude squares over tropical oceans in the North Atlantic and Pacific for day (1130 LST) and night (2330 LST). The maximum percentage and amplitude of the diurnal variation are in the eastern Atlantic and Pacific. Day percentages are higher than at night in the entire 6-10 deg N belt of the Atlantic. Weaker night maxima are to the north and south of this belt. In the Pacific, the distribution of day and night predominance is more variable.

Wexler, R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Atmospheric transport of pollutants from North America to the North Atlantic Ocean

Ground-based measurements strongly support the hypothesis that pollutant materials of anthropogenic origin are being transported over long distances in the midtroposphere and are a significant source of acid rain, acid snow, trace metal deposition, ozone and visibility-reducing aerosols in remote oceanic and polar regions of the Norhern Hemisphere. Atmospheric sulphur budget calculations and studies of acid rain on Bermuda indicate that a large fraction of pollutant materials emitted into the atmosphere in eastern North America are advected eastwards over the North Atlantic Ocean. The first direct airborne measurements of the vertical distribution of tropospheric aerosols over the western North Atlantic is reported here. A newly developed airborne differential adsorption lidar system was used to obtain continuous, remotely sensed aerosol distributions along its flight path. The data document two episodes of long-distance transport of pollutant materials from North America over the North Atlantic Ocean.

Harriss, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Review of North Atlantic Source Waters

North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) ventilates the deep World Ocean. It not only carries relatively well-oxygenated waters, but also other substances derived from recent sea-surface exchanges. There are five regional sources for NADW: (1) derivatives of the salty Mediterranean Sea outflow, (2) products of open-ocean convection in the Labrador Sea, (3) Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water from the Norwegian Sea - salty by virtue of mixing with saline water near the sills, (4) Denmark Strait Overflow Water from the Iceland and Greenland Seas - which retains a high-density, relatively low-salinity signal, and (5) remnants of deep water from the Antarctic circumpolar region - freshest of the bottom waters. Despite the differences of characteristics of the source waters, the NADW is relatively uniform. Because the formation of each of the five source waters may be viewed as a response to a complex series of events, it is difficult to examine the sensitivity of NADW to environmental fluctuations. It is known that the deep northern North Atlantic is relatively closely coupled to the sea surface in the Greenland and Iceland seas. The most recent studies indicate a minimum response time of only two years between the introduction of a passive signal north of Iceland and its appearance in the deep northwest Atlantic.

James H Swift↗
NASA NTRS1984

Ocean Modeling of the North Atlantic

Present modeling of the North Atlantic is inadequate and can be improved in a number of ways. A number of important physical processes are listed in five categories from the viewpoints of how they are treated in isolation, how they are usually represented in present ocean basin models, and how they may be better represented in future models. In the first two categories of vertical boundary processes and internal vertical mixing, parameterizations exist which can easily be incorporated into models and which will have important effects on the simulated structure of the North Atlantic. For the third catagory (mesoscale eddy effects), adequate parameterizations do not exist; but the order of magnitude of the effects is known from observational and process-model studies. A horizontal grid spacing of 100 km or less in required to allow parameterizations with this order of magnitude, as well as to resolve the time-averaged ocean fields. In the fourth category of large scale transports improvements are suggested by way of increased vertical resolution and by the requirement that lateral mixing due to eddies takes place on isopycnal surfaces. Model incorporation of the latter phenomenta is underway. In the fifth category of miscellaneous high-latitude processes, formulations for the treatment of sea ice are available for use. However, the treatment of gravitational instability, which is crucial to deepwater formation in the Atlantic Ocean, will require additional refinements to account for the unresolved physics of chimney formations in the open ocean and buoyant plumes near ocean boundaries.

Albert J Semtner↗
NASA NTRS1985

Gas exchange and CO2 flux in the tropical Atlantic Ocean determined from Rn-222 and pCO2 measurements

The piston velocity for the tropical Atlantic Ocean has been determined from 29 radon profiles measured during the TTO Tropical Atlantic Study. By combining these data with the pCO2 data measured in the surface water and air samples, the net flux of CO2 across the sea-air interface has been calculated for the tropical Atlantic. The dependence of the piston velocity on wind speed is discussed, and possible causes for the high sea-to-air CO2 flux observed in the equatorial zone are examined.

Smethie, W. M., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Heat balances of the surface mixed layer in the equatorial Atlantic and Indian Ocean during FGGE

Surface meteorological and surface and subsurface oceanographic data collected during FGGE in the equatorial Atlantic and Indian Oceans are used to estimate the terms in a heat balance relation for the mixed layer. The first balance tested is between changes in mixed layer temperature (MLT) and surface energy fluxes. Away from regions of low variance in MLT time series and equatorial and coastal upwelling, surface fluxes can account for 75 percent of the variance in the observed time series. Differences between observed and estimated MLTs indicate that on the average, maximum errors in surface flux are of the order of 20 to 30 W/sq m. In the Atlantic, the addition of zonal advection does not significantly improve the estimates. However in regions of equatorial upwelling, the eastern Atlantic vertical mixing and meridional advection can play an important role in the evolution of MLTs.

Molinari, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Rare earth element transport in the western North Atlantic inferred from Nd isotopic observations

The relationship between the Nd isotopic composition in the Atlantic waters and the origin and circulation of the water masses was investigated. Samples were collected in the western North Atlantic between 7 and 54 deg N. The isotopic composition (Nd-143/Nd-144 ratios) showed extensive vertical structure at all locations. In regions where a thermocline was well-developed, large isotopic shifts were observed across the base of the thermocline, while regions without a thermocline were characterized by much more gradual shifts in isotopic composition with depth. The data reveal an excellent correlation between the Nd isotopic distribution in the western North Atlantic water column and the distribution of water masses identified from temperature and salinity measurements.

Piepgras, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Mass, heat and nutrient fluxes in the Atlantic Ocean determined by inverse methods

Inverse methods are applied to historical hydrographic data to address two aspects of the general circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. The method allows conservation statements for mass and other properties, along with a variety of other constraints, to be combined in a dynamically consistent way to estimate the absolute velocity field and associated property transports. The method was first used to examine the exchange of mass and heat between the South Atlantic and the neighboring ocean basins. The second problem addressed concerns the circulation and property fluxes across the 24 and 36 deg N in the subtropical North Atlantic. Conservation statements are considered for the nutrients as well as mass, and the nutrients are found to contribute significant information independent of temperature and salinity.

Rintoul, Stephen Rich↗
NASA NTRS1990

Arctic contribution to upper-ocean variability in the North Atlantic

The potential climatic leverage of salinity and temperature anomalies in the high-latitude North Atlantic is large. Substantial variations of sea ice have accompanied North Atlantic salinity and temperature anomalies. Atmospheric pressure data are used here to show that the local forcing of high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean fluctuations is augmented by antecedent atmospheric circulation anomalies over the central Arctic. These circulation anomalies are consistent with enhanced wind-forcing of thicker older ice into the Transpolar Drift Stream and an enhanced export of sea ice (fresh water) from the Arctic into the Greenland Sea prior to major episodes of ice severity in the Greenland and Iceland seas.

Walsh, John E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Dimension statistics of rain cell cores and associated rain rate isopleths derived from radar measurements in the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States

Employing a multi-year radar database of precipitation in a mid-Atlantic coast region, the authors have characterized rain cell size statistics. The measurements were made with a high resolution, high power radar in which equicircle diameter contours of resolutions of 1 km and greater were identified out to ranges of 100 km from the radar. The rain cell was constructed by its core intensity isopleth and a family of enveloping contours having defined rain rate intervals in the regions between them. The isopleth statistics were extracted from a culled database whose cores had intensities of RLN = 7 (18-24 mm/h) and greater. This implies a bias of the statistics toward various types of convective rains generally associated with thunderstorms in the mid-Atlantic coast. Since the radar measurements were made in the mid-Atlantic coast region, the isopleth statistics may not be directly applicable to other geographic regions (such as the tropics).

Goldhirsh, Julius↗
NASA NTRS1992

Annual, orbital, and enigmatic variations in tropical oceanography recorded by the Equatorial Atlantic amplifier

Equatorial Atlantic surface waters respond directly to changes in zonal and meridional lower tropospheric winds forced by annual insolation. This mechanism has its maximum effect along the equatorial wave guide centered on 10 deg W. The result is to amplify even subtle tropical climate changes such that they are recorded by marked amplitude changes in the proxy signals. Model realizations, NCAR AGCM and OGCM for 0 Ka and 126 Ka (January and July), and paleoceanographic proxy data show that these winds are also forced by insolation changes at the orbital periods of precession and obliquity. Perhelion in boreal summer produces a strengthened monsoon, e.g., increase meridional and decrease zonal wind stress. This reduces oceanic Ekman divergence and thermocline/nutricline shallowing. The result, in the equatorial Atlantic, is reduced primary productivity and higher euphotic zone temperatures; vice versa for perihelion in boreal winter. Perihelion is controlled by precession. Thus, the dominant period in spectra from a stacked SST record (0-252 Ka BP) at the site of the equatorial Atlantic amplifier is 23 Ky (53 percent of the total variance). This precessional period is coherent (k = 0.920) and in phase with boreal summer insolation. Oscillations of shorter period are present in records from cores sited beneath the amplifier region. These occur between 12.5 and 74.5 Ka BP, when eccentricity modulation of precession is at a minimum. Within this time interval there are 21 cycles with mean periods of 3.0 plus or minus 0.5 Ky. Similar periods have been documented from high latitude regions, e.g., Greenland ice cores from Camp Century. The Camp Century signal in this same time interval contains 21 cycles. A subjective correlation was made between the Camp Century and the equatorial records; the signals were statistically similar, r = 0.722 and k = 0.960.

Mcintyre, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1992

The JGOFS North Atlantic Bloom Experiment: An overview

The North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE) of JGOFS presents a unique opportunity and challenge to the data management community because of the diversity and large size of biogeochemical data sets collected. NABE was a pilot study for JGOFS and has also served as a pilot study within the U.S. NODC for management and archiving of the data sets. Here I present an overview to some of the scientific results of NABE, which will be published as an Introduction to a special volume of NABE results in Deep-Sea Research later this year. An overview of NABE data management is given elsewhere in the present report. This is the first collection of papers from the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). Formed as an international program in 1987, JGOFS has four principal elements: modelling and data management, multidisciplinary regional process studies, a global survey of biogeochemical properties and long-term time series observatories. In 1989-1990 JGOFS conducted a pilot process study of the spring phytoplankton bloom, the North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE). JGOFS decided to conduct a large scale, internationally-coordinated pilot study in the North Atlantic because of its proximity to the founding nations of the project, the size and predictability of the bloom and its fundamental impact on ocean bio-geochemistry (Billett et al., 1983; Watson and Whitfield, 1985; Pfannkuche, 1992). In 1989, six research vessels from Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA and over 200 scientists and students from more than a dozen nations participated in NABE. Some of their initial results are reported in this volume.

Ducklow, Hugh W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Meridional fluxes of dissolved organic matter in the North Atlantic Ocean

Biooptical estimates of gelbstoff and a few platinum measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOCpt) are used to construct a budget of the meridional flux of DOC and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) across 36 deg 25 min N in the North Atlantic from previous inverse models of water and element transport. Distinct southward subsurface fluxes of dissolved organic matter within subducted shelf water, cabelled slope water, and overturned basin water are inferred. Within two cases of a positive gradient of DOCpt between terrestrial/shelf and offshore stocks, the net equatorward exports of O2 and DOCpt from the northern North Atlantic yield molar ratios of 2.1 to 9.1, compared to the expected Redfield O2/C ratio of 1.3. It is concluded that some shelf export of DOC, with a positive gradient between coastal and oceanic stocks, as well as falling particles, are required to balance carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen budgets of the North Atlantic.

Walsh, John J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The impact of U.S. continental outflow on ozone and aerosol distributions over the western Atlantic

Aircraft measurements of selected trace gas species, aerosols, and meteorological parameters were performed in the lower troposphere off the U.S. east coast during August and September 1989 as part of the NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) Chemical Instrumentation Test and Evaluation (CITE 3) expedition. In this paper, we examine these data to assess the impact of continental outflow on western Atlantic O3 and small aerosol budgets. Results show that mixed layer (ML) O3 concentrations and small aerosol number densities (Np) were enhanced by factors of 3 and 6, respectively, within air masses of predominantly continental origin compared with clean maritime background air. These enhancements exhibited a marked altitude dependence, declining rapidly above the ML to the point where only slight to moderate differences in O3 and Np, respectively, were notable above 2.4 km. Within continentally influenced ML's, both O3 and Np were correlated with CO, exhibiting linear regression slopes averaging 0.4 ppbv (O3)/ppbv(CO) for O3 and 7.7 (particles/cc)/ppbv(CO) for Np and indicating a primarily anthropogenic origin for the observed enhancement of these species. Comparisons between profiles in continental and background maritime air masses suggest that photochemical production below 1.4-km altitude adds over 10% to western Atlantic tropospheric column O3 abundance in continental outflow regimes. For aerosols, eastward advection of low-level continental air contributes an average net flux of 2.8 metric tons of submicron (accumulation mode) particles per kilometer of shoreline per day to the western Atlantic troposphere.

Anderson, B. E.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Surface-Wind Anomalies in North-Atlantic and North Pacific from SSM/I Observations: Influence on Temperature of Adjoining Land Regions

Surface winds over the oceans are derived from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) measurements, assigning direction by Variational Analysis Method (VAM). Validations by comparison with other measurements indicate highly-satisfactory data quality. Providing global coverage from 1988, the dataset is a convenient source for surface-wind climatology. In this study, the interannual variability of zonal winds is analyzed concentrating on the westerlies in North Atlantic and North Pacific, above 30 N. Interannual differences in the westerlies exceeding 10 m sec (exp -1) are observed over large regions, often accompanied by changes of the same magnitude in the easterlies below 30 N. We concentrate on February/March, since elevated temperatures, by advancing snow-melt, can produce early spring. The extremely strong westerlies in 1997 observed in these months over North Atlantic (and also North Pacific) apparently contributed to large surface-temperature anomalies in western Europe, on the order of +3 C above the climatic monthly average for England and France. At these latitudes strong positive anomalies extended in a ring around the globe. We formulated an Index of South westerlies for the North Atlantic, which can serve as an indicator for day-by-day advection effects into Europe. In comparing 1997 and 1998 with the previous years, we establish significant correlations with the temperature anomalies (one to five days later, depending on the region, and on the season). This variability of the ocean-surface winds and of the temperature anomalies on land may be related to the El Nino/La Nina oscillations. Such large temperature fluctuations over large areas, whatever the cause, can be regarded as noise in attempts to assess long-term trends in global temperature.

Otterman, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1999

Shipboard and Satellite Views of Elevated Tropospheric Ozone over the Tropical Atlantic in January-February 1999

During the Aerosols99 trans-Atlantic cruise from Norfolk, VA, to Cape Town, South Africa, daily ozonesondes were launched from the NOAA R/V Ronald H Brown between 17 January and 6 February l999. A composite of tropospheric ozone profiles along the latitudinal transect shows 4 zones, which are interpreted using correlative shipboard ozone, CO, water vapor, and overhead aerosol optical thickness measurements. Elevated ozone associated with biomass burning north of the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) is prominent at 3-5 km from 10-0N, but even higher ozone (100 ppbv, 7-10 km) occurred south of the ITCZ, where it was not burning. Column-integrated tropospheric ozone was 44 Dobson Units (DU) in one sounding, 10 DU lower than the maximum in a January-February 1993 Atlantic cruise with ozonesondes [Weller et al., 1996]. TOMS tropospheric ozone shows elevated ozone extending throughout the tropical Atlantic in January 1999. Several explanations are considered. Back trajectories, satellite aerosol observations and shipboard tracers suggest a combination of convection and interhemispheric transport of ozone and/or ozone precursors, probably amplified by a lightning NO source over Africa.

Thompson, Anne M.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Atlantic Meridional Transect: Spatially Extensive Calibration and Validation of Optical Properties and Remotely Sensed Measurements of Ocean Colour

Twice a year, the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Clark Ross (JCR) steams a meridional transect of the atlantic Ocean between Grimsly (UK) and Stanley (Falkland Islands) with a port call in Montevideo (Uruguay), as part of the annual research activities of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). In September, the JCR sails from the UK, and the following April it makes the return trip. The ship is operated by the BAS for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) Program exploits the passage of the JCR from approximately 50 deg. N to 50 deg. S with a primary objective to investigate physical and biological processes, as well as to measure the mesi-to-basin-scale bio-optical properties of the atlantic Ocean. The calibration and validation of remotely sensed observations of ocean colour is an inherent objective of these studies: first, by relating in situ measurements of water leaving radiance to satellite measurement, and second, by measuring the bio-optically active constituents of the water.

Aiken, James↗
NASA NTRS2000

Estimation of Aerosol Direct Radiative Effects Over the Mid-Latitude North Atlantic from Satellite and In Situ Measurements

We estimate solar radiative flux changes due to aerosols over the mid-latitude North Atlantic by combining optical depths from AVHRR measurements with aerosol properties from the recent TARFOX program. Results show that, over the ocean the aerosol decreases the net radiative flux at the tropopause and therefore has a cooling effect. Cloud-free, 24-hour average flux changes range from -9 W/sq m near the eastern US coast in summer to -1 W/sq m in the mid-Atlantic during winter. Cloud-free North Atlantic regional averages range from -5.1 W/sq m in summer to -1.7 W/sq m in winter, with an annual average of -3.5 W/sq m. Cloud effects estimated from ISCCP data, reduce the regional annual average to -0.8 W/sq m. All values are for the moderately absorbing TARFOX aerosol (omega(0.55 microns) = 0.9); values for a nonabsorbing aerosol are approx. 30% more negative. We compare our results to a variety of other calculations of aerosol radiative effects.

Bergstrom, Robert W.↗