Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Oceanography
Southern Ocean Phytoplankton Blooms Observed by Biogeochemical Floats
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The spring bloom in the Southern Ocean is the rapid-growth phase of the seasonal cycle in phytoplankton. Many previous studies have characterized the spring bloom using chlorophyll estimates from satellite ocean color observations. Assumptions regarding the chlorophyll-to-carbon ratio within phytoplankton and vertical structure of biogeochemical variables lead to uncertainty in satellite-based [...]
Heat distribution in the Southeast Pacific is only weakly sensitive to high-latitude heat flux and wind stress
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Southern Ocean features regionally-varying ventilation pathways that transport heat and carbon from the surface ocean to the interior thermocline on timescales of decades to centuries, but the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not well understood. In this study, we use a global ocean state estimate (ECCOv4) to (1) define the recently ventilated interior [...]
The sensitivity of Southeast Pacific heat distribution to local and remote changes in ocean properties
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Southern Ocean features ventilation pathways that transport surface waters into the subsurface thermocline on timescales of decades to centuries, sequestering anomalies of heat and carbon away from the atmosphere and thereby regulating the rate of surface warming. Despite its importance for climate sensitivity, the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not [...]
Probing the chemical transformation of seawater-soluble crude oil components during microbial oxidation
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Studies assessing the environmental impacts of oil spills focus primarily on the non-water-soluble components, leaving the fate of the water-soluble fraction (WSF) largely unexplored. We employed untargeted chemical analysis along with biological information to probe the transformation of crude oil WSF in seawater, in the absence of light, in a laboratory experiment. Over a 14-day incubation, [...]
On the automatic and a priori design of unstructured mesh resolution for coastal ocean circulation models
Published: 2019-05-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study investigates the design of unstructured mesh resolution and its impact on the modeling of barotropic tides along the United States East Coast and Gulf Coast (ECGC). A discrete representation of a computational ocean domain (mesh design) is necessary due to finite computational resources and an incomplete knowledge of the physical system (e.g., shoreline and seabed topography). The [...]
Reduction of spatially structured errors in wide-swath altimetric satellite data using data assimilation
Published: 2019-05-07
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission is a next generation satellite mission expected to provide a 2km-resolution observation of the sea surface height (SSH) on a two-dimensional swath. Processing SWOT data will be challenging, because of the large amount of data, the mismatch between high spatial resolution and low temporal resolution, and the observation errors. The present [...]
The flow of fresh groundwater and solutes to the world’s oceans and coastal ecosystems
Published: 2019-03-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The flow of fresh groundwater towards the world oceans may provide substantial inputs of nutrients and solutes to the oceans. Here we present a spatially resolved global model of coastal groundwater discharge to show that the contribution of fresh groundwater is lower than most previous estimates and accounts for only ~0.6% of the freshwater input and ~2% of the solute input to the oceans. [...]
New flow relaxation mechanism explains scour fields at the end of submarine channels
Published: 2019-03-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
In the ocean, particle-laden gravity flows, turbidity currents, flow in river-like channels across the ocean floor. These submarine channels funnel sediment, nutrients, pollutants and organic carbon into the ocean basins and can extend over 1,000’s of kilometers. At the end of these channels, turbidity currents lose their confinement, decelerate and deposit their sediment load. This is what we [...]
Factor Analysis by R Programming to Assess Variability Among Environmental Determinants of the Mariana Trench
Published: 2019-01-28
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Geography, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Programming Languages and Compilers, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Tectonics and Structure, Water Resource Management
The aim of this work is to identify main impact factors affecting variations in the geomorphology of the Mariana Trench which is the deepest place of the Earth, located in the west Pacific Ocean: steepness angle and structure of the sediment compression. The Mariana Trench presents a complex ecosystem with highly interconnected factors: geology (sediment thickness and tectonics including four [...]
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis by R language for Pattern Recognition in the Bathymetric Data Frame: a Case Study of the Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Statistics and Probability, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Statistics and Probability, Tectonics and Structure
The geographic focus of the current study Mariana trench, the deepest point of the Earth located in the west Pacific Ocean. Mariana trench has unique structure and features formed in the complex process of the trench development. There is a range of the environmental factors affecting trench structure and functioning: bathymetry, geography, geology and tectonics. Current research aimed to study [...]
Utilising the flexible generation potential of tidal range power plants to optimise economic value
Published: 2019-01-08
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tidal range renewable power plants have the capacity to deliver predictable energy to the electricity grid, subject to the known variability of the tides. Tidal power plants inherently feature advantages that characterise hydro-power more generally, including a lifetime exceeding alternative renewable energy technologies and relatively low Operation & Maintenance costs. Nevertheless, the [...]
Applications of Deep Learning to Ocean Data Inference and Sub-Grid Parameterisation
Published: 2018-11-20
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Oceanographic observations are limited by sampling rates, while ocean models are limited by finite resolution and high viscosity and diffusion coefficients. Therefore both data from observations and ocean models lack information at small-scales. Methods are needed to either extract information, extrapolate, or up-scale existing oceanographic datasets, to account for the unresolved physical [...]
Volume transports and temperature distributions in the main Arctic Gateways: A comparative study between an ocean reanalysis and mooring-derived data
Published: 2018-10-24
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Oceanic transports through the Arctic gateways represent an integral part of the polar climate system, but comprehensive in-situ-based estimates of this quantity have been lacking in the past. New observation-based estimates of oceanic volume, temperature and freshwater transports have recently become available. Those estimates have been derived from moored observations in the four major gateways [...]
Coastal upwelling in Atlantic Canada [full paper published in Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies, 49 (1): 81-87, 2020]
Published: 2018-09-12
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The most studied upwelling systems occur on eastern ocean boundary coasts. We hereby focus on a western ocean boundary coast upwelling system located in Atlantic Canada. Using daily in-situ data on sea surface temperature (SST), we demonstrate a marked contrast in cooling between July 2014 (pronounced) and July 2015 (weak) for two locations ca. 110 km apart on the southeastern coast of Nova [...]
Higher potential compound flood risk in Northern Europe under anthropogenic climate change
Published: 2018-07-18
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Multivariate Analysis, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Probability
The published version of this article is available at https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/9/eaaw5531. Compound flooding (CF) is an extreme event taking place in low-lying coastal areas as a result of co-occurring high sea level and large amounts of runoff, caused by precipitation. The impact from the two hazards occurring individually can be significantly lower than the result of their [...]