Feature Publication Archive
A New Robust Sensor for Extended Autonomous Measurements of Surface Ocean Dissolved Inorganic Carbon
Fassbender, A.J., C.L. Sabine, N. Lawrence-Slavas, E.H. De Carlo, C. Meinig, and S. Maenner Jones (2015): Robust sensor for extended autonomous measurements of surface ocean dissolved inorganic carbon. Environ. Sci. Tech., doi: 10.1021/es5047183.
The ocean plays an important role in global climate through the transport and storage of carbon, yet it is unclear how ocean warming and acidification will influence ocean carbon cycling on societally relevant timescales. This uncertainty is largely due to the challenges in developing autonomous marine sensors with the accuracy and endurance needed for long-term observational efforts that can resolve environmental variability. In addition, two carbonate system parameters must be measured simultaneously in order to fully constrain seawater carbonate chemistry and to quantitatively assess... more »
Chiodi, A.M., and D.E. Harrison (2015): Equatorial Pacific easterly wind surges and the onset of La Niña events. J. Climate, 28 (2), 776-792, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00227.1.
It has become well accepted that Westerly Wind Events (WWE) lasting for about a week play a fundamental role in the onset and maintenance of El Niño events in the tropical Pacific. In this paper we show that there are wind events of similar size and duration that appear to play a similar role in the onset and maintenance of La Niña events. We call these wind events Easterly Wind Surges (EWSs). They have been previously overlooked in studies of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon because they do not stand out in wind (speed) records in the same way that WWEs do; only when looking at... more »
Bernard, E., L. Tang, Y. Wei, and V. Titov (2014): Impact of near-field, deep-ocean tsunami observations on forecasting the 7 December 2012 Japanese tsunami. Pure Appl. Geophys., 171(12), 3483–3491, doi:10.1007/s00024-013-0720-8.
Wei, Y., A.V. Newman, G.P. Gavin, V.V. Titov, and L. Tang (2014): Tsunami forecast by joint inversion of real-time tsunami waveforms and seismic or GPS data: Application to the Tohoku 2011 tsunami.Pure Appl. Geophys., 171(12), 3281–3305, doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0777-z.
Zhou, H., Y. Wei, L. Wright, and V. Titov (2014): Waves and currents in Hawaiian waters induced by the dispersive 2011 Tohoku tsunami. Pure Appl. Geophys., 171(12), 3365–3384, doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0781-3.
In December, Pure and Applied Geophysics (PAGEOPH) published the topical issue, Tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean: 2011-2012, which contains 21 new papers discussing tsunami events that occurred in this two-year span. PMEL scientists contributed three of the papers to this issue.
Bernard et al. report on a small tsunami produced by a Mw 7.3 earthquake offshore of Japan, adjacent to the source region for the 2011 Tohoku event. They present deep-water tsunameter data from the event, recorded on instruments that were deployed just two weeks before the... more »
Bednaršek, N., G.A. Tarling, D.C.E. Bakker, S. Fielding, and R.A. Feely (2014): Dissolution dominating calcification process in polar pteropods close to the point of aragonite undersaturation. PLoS ONE, 9(10), e109183, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109183.
Sea snails that build aragonite shells are also known as pteropods. They are a prolific upper-ocean zooplankton, especially abundant in high-latitudinal environments in the Arctic and the Southern Ocean but also found in highly productive upwelling regimes such as the California Current System. They represent a food source for higher trophic levels, including varieties of fish, birds, and whales, and they play a key role in energy transfer and carbon fluxes in these regions by exerting a high grazing pressure with large feeding webs, faeces, and pseudofaeces sinking rapidly and... more »
Cohen, J., J.A. Screen, J.C. Furtado, M. Barlow, D. Whittleston, D. Coumou, J. Francis, K. Dethloff, D. Entekhabi, J. Overland, and J. Jones (2014): Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather. Nature Geosci., 7(9), doi: 10.1038/ngeo2234, 627–637.
Improved understanding of new potential Arctic-lower latitude weather linkages and implications for weather and climate predictions
The role of the Arctic in the global climate system is based on multiple processes unique to the Arctic, driven by modest global warming. Arctic temperatures continue to increase at least 3 times the rate of mid-latitude temperatures. Multiple feedbacks, such as clouds, loss of sea ice and snow cover, heat storage in the ocean, and atmospheric dynamics are a hypothesized cause for this phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. For example, more... more »