Featured
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Letter |
Eastern Pacific tropical cyclones intensified by El Niño delivery of subsurface ocean heat
El Niño events can transfer subsurface heat to the eastern North Pacific with a delay of several months, causing the intensification of tropical cyclones; the mechanism may lead to insights into past variations in tropical cyclone intensity and enhance seasonal predictions.
- F.-F. Jin
- , J. Boucharel
- & I.-I. Lin
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Letter |
Increased frequency of extreme Indian Ocean Dipole events due to greenhouse warming
Extreme positive-Indian-Ocean-dipole events cause devastating floods in eastern tropical Africa and severe droughts in Asia; increasing greenhouse gas emissions will make these dipole events about three times more frequent in the twenty-first century.
- Wenju Cai
- , Agus Santoso
- & Toshio Yamagata
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Letter |
Storm-induced sea-ice breakup and the implications for ice extent
Concurrent observations at multiple locations indicate that storm-generated ocean waves propagating through Antarctic sea ice can transport enough energy to break first-year sea ice hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge, which is much farther than would be predicted by the commonly assumed exponential wave decay.
- A. L. Kohout
- , M. J. M. Williams
- & M. H. Meylan
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Letter |
Late-twentieth-century emergence of the El Niño propagation asymmetry and future projections
The El Niño propagation asymmetry (in which sea surface temperature anomalies propagate eastwards during an extreme El Niño event) is shown to be caused by the variations in upper ocean currents in the equatorial Pacific Ocean; increased occurrences of the propagation asymmetry may be a manifestation of global greenhouse warming.
- Agus Santoso
- , Shayne McGregor
- & Eric Guilyardi
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Letter |
Rapid cross-density ocean mixing at mid-depths in the Drake Passage measured by tracer release
An ocean tracer release in the Drake Passage, between South America and Antarctica, shows that its rough bottom topography causes greatly increased internal mixing, by a factor of about 20 at depths of around 1,500 metres.
- Andrew J. Watson
- , James R. Ledwell
- & Alberto C. Naveira Garabato
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Letter |
Calving fluxes and basal melt rates of Antarctic ice shelves
An estimate of the mass balance components for all ice shelves in Antarctica indicates that about half of the ice-sheet surface mass gain is lost through oceanic erosion before reaching the ice front, and that the loss due to iceberg calving is about 34 per cent less than previously thought.
- M. A. Depoorter
- , J. L. Bamber
- & G. Moholdt
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Letter |
Recent global-warming hiatus tied to equatorial Pacific surface cooling
Global warming has stalled since the late 1990s, puzzling researchers; here a climate model that includes observed sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific reproduces the hiatus as part of natural variation, suggesting that long-term global warming is likely to continue.
- Yu Kosaka
- & Shang-Ping Xie
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Letter |
North Atlantic Ocean control on surface heat flux on multidecadal timescales
Long-term time series of surface ocean-atmosphere heat fluxes show that the mid-latitude North Atlantic ocean may influence atmospheric variability on multidecadal timescales.
- Sergey K. Gulev
- , Mojib Latif
- & Klaus Peter Koltermann
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Letter |
Seasonal sea surface cooling in the equatorial Pacific cold tongue controlled by ocean mixing
In the tropics, a strong seasonal cycle in sea surface temperature exists despite comparatively constant radiation inputs; turbulent mixing from below is now shown to control the cooling phase of the seasonal cycle in the equatorial Pacific ‘cold tongue’ at 140° W.
- James N. Moum
- , Alexander Perlin
- & Michael J. McPhaden
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Letter |
Dynamics of a Snowball Earth ocean
Extensive glaciations, possibly even a globally ice-covered Snowball Earth, took place in the Neoproterozoic era, and here the possible ocean circulation at that time, under a kilometre of ice, is described.
- Yosef Ashkenazy
- , Hezi Gildor
- & Eli Tziperman
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Letter |
Northern Hemisphere forcing of Southern Hemisphere climate during the last deglaciation
Changes in ocean circulation are the most plausible explanation for the early Southern Hemisphere deglacial warming and its lead over Northern Hemisphere temperature.
- Feng He
- , Jeremy D. Shakun
- & John E. Kutzbach
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Letter |
Slowdown of the Walker circulation driven by tropical Indo-Pacific warming
Changes in the Walker circulation, an enormous east–west atmospheric circulation over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, are shown to be driven by changes in zonal sea surface temperature gradients rather than by changes in the hydrological cycle, as previously suggested.
- Hiroki Tokinaga
- , Shang-Ping Xie
- & Yuko M. Okumura
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News |
Ancient tsunami devastated Lake Geneva shoreline
Sediments suggest wave was triggered by massive rock fall, highlighting risk to modern lakeside communities.
- Jessica Marshall
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Letter |
Recent changes to the Gulf Stream causing widespread gas hydrate destabilization
Seismic data and modelling are used to reveal clathrate destabilization along the eastern margin of the United States; the destabilization is probably linked to warming, or a slight shift, in the Gulf Stream.
- Benjamin J. Phrampus
- & Matthew J. Hornbach
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News |
Perfect storm hit Gulf of Mexico dolphins
Cold weather, Deepwater Horizon and an influx of cold fresh water combined to cause record cetacean mortality.
- Melissa Gaskill
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News |
Sea versus senators
North Carolina sea-level rise accelerates while state legislators put the brakes on research.
- Leigh Phillips
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News |
US northeast coast is hotspot for rising sea levels
Report comes after North Carolina senate proposes bill to ban predictions of increase in rates of sea-level rise.
- Leigh Phillips
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News & Views |
A grip on ice-age ocean circulation
Climate simulations based on an ocean model may hold the key to understanding why existing climate models have failed to deliver a clear picture of ocean circulation during the last ice age.
- Jochem Marotzke
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News & Views |
Tahitian record suggests Antarctic collapse
The exact origin, timing and amplitude of a rapid period of sea-level rise known as meltwater pulse 1A, about 14,500 years ago, have remained unclear. An analysis of coral samples from Tahiti delivers some answers. See Article p.559
- Robert E. Kopp
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Research Highlights |
Tsunamis collide and grow taller
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News |
Finding the flotsam: where is Japan's floating tsunami wreckage headed?
Scientists model where and when the detritus will reach the US west coast.
- Rose Eveleth
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Letter |
Messinian salinity crisis regulated by competing tectonics and erosion at the Gibraltar arc
The persistent, shallow connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea that caused the Messinian salinity crisis may have been sustained by a balance between tectonic uplift and erosion due to inflow.
- D. Garcia-Castellanos
- & A. Villaseñor
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Letter |
Arabian Sea tropical cyclones intensified by emissions of black carbon and other aerosols
- Amato T. Evan
- , James P. Kossin
- & V. Ramanathan
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Research Highlights |
Why the Atlantic is so hot
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News & Views |
Ocean dynamics not required?
There are many challenges involved in understanding climate variations in the tropics, and how the Pacific climate might change with global warming. One study offers a surprising perspective on the mechanisms involved.
- Jing-Jia Luo
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News |
Pirates scupper monsoon research
Gaping holes in data threaten long-term wind and water measurements.
- Nicola Jones
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Research Highlights |
Extra warming near Greenland
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Research Highlights |
Ocean levels climbing faster
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News |
NASA ready to test the waters
Satellite mission to monitor ocean salinity may help solve climate questions.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Letter |
Interannual atmospheric variability forced by the deep equatorial Atlantic Ocean
- Peter Brandt
- , Andreas Funk
- & John M. Toole
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Research Highlights |
A tsunami's trip around the world
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News |
The drying of East Africa
A shift in tropical ocean circulations could explain a historical shift in global climate.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Letter |
Reversed flow of Atlantic deep water during the Last Glacial Maximum
The behaviour of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 21 kyr ago, remains uncertain, with different lines of evidence arguing for either no change or a sharp reduction. These authors present an analysis of flow-sensitive protactinium and thorium isotopes from the North and South Atlantic oceans, showing that the previously contradictory results can be integrated in a new framework supporting a reversed Atlantic MOC at the LGM.
- César Negre
- , Rainer Zahn
- & José L. Mas
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News |
Scratching the subsurface
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill puts ocean-current modelling to the test.
- Janet Fang
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Research Highlights |
Geophysics: Glaciers going, going...
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News |
Undersea project delivers data flood
Sea-floor observatory in the Pacific Ocean to provide terabytes of data.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Haiti earthquake produced deadly tsunami
Waves up to three metres high hit sections of the nation's coastline.
- Richard A. Lovett
Intensification and spatial homogenization of coastal upwelling under climate change
Arctic Ocean feels the heat
How ocean stirring affects climate