Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Oceanography
Global Gravitational-Resonant Waves in the Arctic Basin: Visualizing Hidden Ocean Macrodynamics using 22-Year Passive Microwave Radiometry Data
Published: 2026-06-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The dynamics of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice cover are traditionally viewed through the lens of atmospheric forcing, ocean currents, and thermodynamic processes. In this paper, we propose a fundamentally new paradigm: the sea ice cover acts not as an elastic membrane transmitting mechanical stress, but as a passive two-dimensional indicator (analogous to Chladni figures) that visualizes a [...]
Tropical cyclones intensify mesoscale eddy variability and accelerate Western Boundary Current instability
Published: 2026-06-18
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tropical cyclones strongly disrupt the upper ocean, yet their influence on mesoscale variability in western boundary current systems remains poorly quantified. The Gulf of Mexico, where the Loop Current regularly sheds large warm-core eddies, offers an ideal setting to examine how hurricanes reshape mesoscale dynamics. Using a high-resolution ocean model and hurricane-denial experiments, we [...]
ENSO-Driven Modulation of the Caribbean Subsurface Salinity Maximum
Published: 2026-06-17
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study identifies El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as the primary driver of interannual subsurface salinity variability in the Caribbean Sea. Using 30 years of high-resolution, data-assimilative ocean reanalysis (1993–2022), we show that the Subsurface Salinity Maximum (SSM) closely tracks ENSO cycles: El Niño events correspond to a saltier and deeper SSM, while La Niña drives a fresher [...]
Dress Rehearsal: 2023 El Niño Anticipatory Action Somalia, in the Shadow of 1997
Published: 2026-06-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Human Geography, Meteorology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Geography, Physical and Environmental Geography
In 2023 Somalia saw the largest-ever scale of anticipatory action (AA) linked to a seasonal forecast. $24m was spent on preparedness and early response, based on forecasted flooding driven by El Niño and a positiveIn 2023 Somalia saw the largest-ever scale of anticipatory action (AA) linked to a seasonal forecast. $24m was spent on preparedness and early response, based on forecasted flooding [...]
Hydroelectric Regulation Decouples Arctic Silica Delivery from the Diatom Bloom: A Climate-Independent Causal Attribution Across Twenty Subarctic Rivers
Published: 2026-05-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Oceanography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Large subarctic rivers deliver most of their dissolved nutrients during the spring freshet, in approximate phase with the ice-edge diatom bloom that those nutrients support. Hydroelectric regulation flattens the river hydrograph, holding back the freshet and raising winter discharge, and in doing so it redistributes nutrient delivery in time. Across twenty subarctic rivers spanning the Arctic [...]
Transformation of climatologically anomalous water masses
Published: 2026-05-16
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Wederiveanovelanomalous water mass budget framework in which water masses are defined by bounds on tracer anomalies rather than absolute tracer values, extending Water Mass Transformation (WMT) theory to ocean variability and extremes. The material derivative of tracer anomalies introduces three additional transformation terms absent from the standard WMT framework: advection of climatological [...]
Learning unresolved coastal dynamics in hydrodynamic models
Published: 2026-05-03
Subjects: Fluid Dynamics, Oceanography
Coastal hydrodynamic models play a vital role in understanding and predicting flooding, but practical computational constraints and uncertainties in boundary conditions and bathymetry lead to systematic errors in local sea level. We show that much of this error is not random but reflects a stable, site-specific response that can be learned from model output and observations. We develop a [...]
Why the Cap-Ferret sand spit is collapsing
Published: 2026-04-27
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Sedimentology
The Cap-Ferret sand spit (SW France) exhibits a pattern of coastal instability that combines chronic shoreline retreat (8.7 m·yr⁻¹ at the tip, Robinet et al. 2025), sudden vertical collapses of emplaced structures (WW2 blockhaus 2024, 2026; oyster-farm sector 1936, 1977; Hortense promenade 1999, 2000, 2014, 2019), and progressive deepening of submarine pits (Hortense-Pointe depression volume [...]
Spatiotemporal evolution of temperature extremes across India’s agro-climatic zones (1951–2025)
Published: 2026-04-11
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Meteorology, Oceanography
Long-term changes in temperature extremes are a robust signature of anthropogenic climate change, yet their spatial structure across India’s agro-climatic zones (ACZs) remains insufficiently resolved at policy scales. Here, we quantify changes in temperature extremes across 14 mainland ACZs during 1951–2025 using the India Meteorological Department 1°×1° gridded daily dataset. We compute 22 [...]
Seasonal Shift in the Dominant Pathway Energizing Mesoscale Eddies in the California Current
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mesoscale eddies are the dominant reservoir of kinetic energy in the ocean, yet the mechanisms that generate and maintain them in eastern boundary current systems remain incompletely assessed. Here we use a 1-km resolution simulation of the California Current System (CCS) to diagnose and quantify the processes that supply kinetic energy to the mesoscale band. A pronounced seasonal transition is [...]
Introducing Microalgae Carbon Fixation and Sinking (MCFS): a new approach for controlled and scalable CDR
Published: 2026-04-08
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Oceanography, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Achieving global climate targets requires scalable and durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies to tackle both historical and hard-to- abate emissions. We introduce Microalgae Carbon Fixation and Sinking (MCFS), a marine CDR methodology designed to enhance carbon fixation and export to the deep ocean through a controlled process. At the core of the MCFS approach is a tailored substrate: [...]
A new diagnostic of air-sea interaction reveals ocean control of turbulent heat flux in the South Asian Summer Monsoon
Published: 2026-04-02
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Oceanography
Air-sea interaction plays a central role in the South Asian summer monsoon, with processes such as surface turbulent heat fluxes, upper ocean mechanical mixing, surface buoyancy forcing, and surface moisture fluxes providing bridges between the ocean and atmosphere. The air-sea heat flux responds to internal variability in the ocean and atmosphere, as well as feedbacks arising from their [...]
The Oceanic Response to Winds in the Antarctic Sea Ice Loss at the end of the 1970s
Published: 2026-03-28
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The sea ice extent (SIE) in the Southern Ocean experienced a substantial decline in the late 1970s, although less pronounced than the one observed in 2016. Though several studies explain the decline since 2016, the 1970s drop is critical in understanding the long-term variability of SIE. To investigate the underlying mechanisms for this decline, we conducted wind stress-forced multi- ensemble [...]
Fluctuation-induced dissipation for ocean surface waves
Published: 2026-03-22
Subjects: Fluid Dynamics, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Phase averaging is a one-time operation. Irreversibletransport is not.Here we identify a coupling hidden in the Navier-Stokesequations for surface waves propagating through turbulencewhose one-time phase average vanishes but whose two-timeautocorrelation yields a finite Green-Kubo frictioncoefficient.Classical phase averaging removes this stochastic vortexforce, the bilinear coupling between wave [...]
Non-peer reviewed Report submitted to Seismica: Correlation of DAS Strain Data and Oceanographic Variables in the North-East Atlantic
Published: 2026-03-18
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Oceanography
DAS recordings close to the coast are influenced by pressure signals from land- and seaward ocean surface gravity waves. The amplitude and period of the signal can serve as proxies for the sea state. Measurements along the cable at greater water depths show secondary microseisms related to the sea state away from the shore. The significant wave height (SWH) and ocean currents along the cable can [...]