IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v8y2018i1d10.1038_s41558-017-0022-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent wind-driven change in Subantarctic Mode Water and its impact on ocean heat storage

Author

Listed:
  • Libao Gao

    (First Institute of Oceanography, SOA
    Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology
    Ocean University of China)

  • Stephen R. Rintoul

    (CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere
    University of Tasmania
    Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research)

  • Weidong Yu

    (First Institute of Oceanography, SOA
    Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology
    National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, SOA)

Abstract

The subduction and export of Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) supplies the upper limb of the overturning circulation and makes an important contribution to global heat, freshwater, carbon and nutrient budgets 1–5 . Upper ocean heat content has increased since 2006, helping to explain the so-called global warming hiatus between 1998 and 2014, with much of the ocean warming concentrated in extratropical latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere in close association with SAMW and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) 6,7 . Here we use Argo observations to assess changes in the thickness, depth and heat content of the SAMW layer. Between 2005 and 2015, SAMW has thickened (3.6 ± 0.3 m yr−1), deepened (2.4 ± 0.2 m yr−1) and warmed (3.9 ± 0.3 W m−2). Wind forcing, rather than buoyancy forcing, is largely responsible for the observed trends in SAMW. Most (84%) of the increase in SAMW heat content is the result of changes in thickness; warming by buoyancy forcing (increased heat flux to the ocean) accounts for the remaining 16%. Projected increases in wind stress curl would drive further deepening of SAMW and increase in heat storage in the Southern Hemisphere oceans.

Suggested Citation

  • Libao Gao & Stephen R. Rintoul & Weidong Yu, 2018. "Recent wind-driven change in Subantarctic Mode Water and its impact on ocean heat storage," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 58-63, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41558-017-0022-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-017-0022-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0022-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-017-0022-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Varvara E. Zemskova & Tai-Long He & Zirui Wan & Nicolas Grisouard, 2022. "A deep-learning estimate of the decadal trends in the Southern Ocean carbon storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Zhi Li & Matthew H. England & Sjoerd Groeskamp, 2023. "Recent acceleration in global ocean heat accumulation by mode and intermediate waters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Libao Gao & Xiaojun Yuan & Wenju Cai & Guijun Guo & Weidong Yu & Jiuxin Shi & Fangli Qiao & Zexun Wei & Guy D. Williams, 2024. "Persistent warm-eddy transport to Antarctic ice shelves driven by enhanced summer westerlies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41558-017-0022-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.