Lixiao Xu

Dynamical Role of Mode Water Ventilation in Decadal Variability in the Central Subtropical Gyre of the North Pacific

Abstract Decadal variability in the interior subtropical North Pacific is examined in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory coupled model (CM2.1). Superimposed on a broad, classical subtropical gyre is a narrow jet called the subtropical countercurrent (STCC) that flows northeastward against the northeast trade winds. Consistent with observations, the STCC is anchored by mode water characterized by its low potential vorticity (PV). Mode water forms in the deep winter mixed layer of the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension (KOE) east of Japan and flows southward riding on the subtropical gyre and preserving its low-PV characteristic. As a thick layer of uniform properties, the mode water forces the upper pycnocline to shoal, and the associated eastward shear results in the surface-intensified STCC. On decadal time scales in the central subtropical gyre (15°–35°N, 170°E–130°W), the dominant mode of sea surface height variability is characterized by the strengthening and weakening of the STCC because of variations...

Response of the North Pacific subtropical countercurrent and its variability to global warming

Response of the North Pacific subtropical countercurrent (STCC) and its variability to global warming is examined in a state-of-the-art coupled model that is forced by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Compared with the present climate, the upper ocean is more stratified, and the mixed layer depth (MLD) shoals in warmer climate. The maximum change of winter MLD appears in the Kuroshio–Oyashio extension (KOE) region, where the mean MLD is the deepest in the North Pacific. This weakens the MLD front and reduces lateral induction. As a result of the reduced subduction rate and a decrease in sea surface density in KOE, mode waters form on lighter isopycnals with reduced thickness. Advected southward, the weakened mode waters decelerate the STCC. On decadal timescales, the dominant mode of sea surface height in the central subtropical gyre represents STCC variability. This STCC mode decays as CO2 concentrations double in the twenty-first century, owing both to weakened mode waters in the mean state and to reduced variability in mode waters. The reduced mode-water variability can be traced upstream to reduced variations in winter MLD front and subduction in the KOE region where mode water forms.

Mesoscale eddy effects on the subduction of North Pacific mode waters

Mesoscale eddy effects on the subduction of North Pacific mode waters are investigated by comparing observations and ocean general circulation models where eddies are either parameterized or resolved. The eddy-resolving models produce results closer to observations than the noneddy-resolving model. There are large discrepancies in subduction patterns between eddy-resolving and noneddy-resolving models. In the noneddy-resolving model, subduction on a given isopycnal is limited to the cross point between the mixed layer depth (MLD) front and the outcrop line whereas in eddy-resolving models and observations, subduction takes place in a broader, zonally elongated band within the deep mixed layer region. Mesoscale eddies significantly enhance the total subduction rate, helping create remarkable peaks in the volume histogram that correspond to North Pacific subtropical mode water (STMW) and central mode water (CMW). Eddy-enhanced subduction preferentially occurs south of the winter mean outcrop. With an anticyclonic eddy to the west and a cyclonic eddy to the east, the outcrop line meanders south, and the thermocline/MLD shoals eastward. As eddies propagate westward, the MLD shoals, shielding the water of low potential vorticity from the atmosphere. The southward eddy flow then carries the subducted water mass into the thermocline. The eddy subduction processes revealed here have important implications for designing field observations and improving models.

Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific

While modelling studies suggest that mesoscale eddies strengthen the subduction of mode waters, this eddy effect has never been observed in the field. Here we report results from a field campaign from March 2014 that captured the eddy effects on mode-water subduction south of the Kuroshio Extension east of Japan. The experiment deployed 17 Argo floats in an anticyclonic eddy (AC) with enhanced daily sampling. Analysis of over 3,000 hydrographic profiles following the AC reveals that potential vorticity and apparent oxygen utilization distributions are asymmetric outside the AC core, with enhanced subduction near the southeastern rim of the AC. There, the southward eddy flow advects newly ventilated mode water from the north into the main thermocline. Our results show that subduction by eddy lateral advection is comparable in magnitude to that by the mean flow—an effect that needs to be better represented in climate models.

Subthermocline eddies observed by rapid-sampling Argo floats in the subtropical northwestern Pacific Ocean in Spring 2014

In Spring 2014, two subthermocline eddies (STEs) were observed by rapid-sampling Argo floats in the subtropical northwestern Pacific (STNWP). The first one is a warm, salty, and oxygen-poor lens, with its temperature/salinity /dissolved oxygen (T/S/DO) anomalies reaching 1.16°C/0.21 practical salinity unit (psu)/−29.9 µmol/kg, respectively, near the 26.62σ0 surface. The other is a cold, fresh, and oxygen-rich lens, with its T/S/DO anomalies reaching −1.95°C/−0.34 psu/88.0 µmol/kg, respectively, near the 26.54σ0 surface. The vertical extent of the water mass anomalies in the warm (cold) STE is about 190 m (150 m), and its horizontal length scale is 22 ± 7 km (18 ± 10 km). According to their water mass properties, we speculate that the warm and cold STEs are generated in the North Pacific Subtropical and Subarctic Front region, respectively. The observed STEs may play an important role in modifying the intermediate-layer water properties in the STNWP, and this needs to be confirmed by more focused observations in the future.

Fast and slow responses of the North Pacific mode water and Subtropical Countercurrent to global warming

Six coupled general circulation models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) are employed for examining the full evolution of the North Pacific mode water and Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC) under global warming over 400 years following the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5. The mode water and STCC first show a sharp weakening trend when the radiative forcing increases, but then reverse to a slow strengthening trend of smaller magnitude after the radiative forcing is stablized. As the radiative forcing increases during the 21st century, the ocean warming is surface-intensified and decreases with depth, strengthening the upper ocean’s stratification and becoming unfavorable for the mode water formation. Moving southward in the subtropical gyre, the shrinking mode water decelerates the STCC to the south. After the radiative forcing is stabilized in the 2070s, the subsequent warming is greater at the subsurface than at the sea surface, destabilizing the upper ocean and becoming favorable for the mode water formation. As a result, the mode water and STCC recover gradually after the radiative forcing is stabilized.

Response of mode water and Subtropical Countercurrent to greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing in the North Pacific

The response of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water and Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC) to changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) and aerosol is investigated based on the 20th-century historical and single-forcing simulations with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Model version 3 (GFDL CM3). The aerosol effect causes sea surface temperature (SST) to decrease in the mid-latitude North Pacific, especially in the Kuroshio Extension region, during the past five decades (1950–2005), and this cooling effect exceeds the warming effect by the GHG increase. The STCC response to the GHG and aerosol forcing are opposite. In the GHG (aerosol) forcing run, the STCC decelerates (accelerates) due to the decreased (increased) mode waters in the North Pacific, resulting from a weaker (stronger) front in the mixed layer depth and decreased (increased) subduction in the mode water formation region. The aerosol effect on the SST, mode waters and STCC more than offsets the GHG effect. The response of SST in a zonal band around 40°N and the STCC to the combined forcing in the historical simulation is similar to the response to the aerosol forcing.

Multicore structure of the North Pacific subtropical mode water from enhanced Argo observations

Seventeen Argo profiling floats with enhanced vertical and temporal sampling were deployed in the Kuroshio recirculation gyre in the western North Pacific in late March 2014. The Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) observed in many profiles displays a “multicore structure” with more than one minima in potential vorticity (PV), corroborated by vertical covariations in apparent oxygen utilization (AOU). These cores are classified into four submodes according to density and AOU. The submode waters are typically 100 m thick, in which PV varies by 1 × 10−10 m−1 s−1 and AOU by 10 µmole/kg. The STMW multicore structure is most frequently observed in spring, gradually taken over by single-core profiles into summer. The seasonal evolution is suggestive of vertical mixing, especially in STMW of lower density.

Evolution of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water in Anticyclonic Eddies

Anticyclonic eddies (AEs) trap and transport the North Pacific subtropical mode water (STMW), but the evolution of the STMW trapped in AEs has not been fully studied due to the lack of eddy-tracking subsurface observations. Here we analyze profiles from special-designed Argo floats that follow two STMW-trapping AEs for more than a year. The enhanced daily sampling by these Argo floats swirling around the eddies enables an unprecedented investigation into the structure and evolution of the trapped STMW. In the AEs, the upper (lower) thermocline domes up (concaves downward), and this lens-shaped double thermocline encompasses the thick STMW within the eddy core. The lighter STMW (25.0 ∼ 25.2 σθ) trapped in AEs dissipates quickly after the formation in winter because of the deepening seasonal thermocline, but the denser STMW (25.2 ∼ 25.4 σθ) remains largely unchanged except when the AE passes across the Izu Ridge. The enhanced diapycnal mixing over the ridge weakens the denser STMW appreciably. While many AEs decay upon hitting the ridge, some pass through a bathymetric gap between the Hachijojima and Bonin Islands, forming a cross-ridge pathway for STMW transport. By contrast, the North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) underneath is deeper than the eddy trapping depth (600 m), and hence left behind east of the Izu Ridge. In Argo climatology, the shallow STMW (< 400 m) intrudes through the gap westward because of the eddy transport, while the NPIW (800 m) is blocked by the Izu Ridge.

Observing subsurface changes of two anticyclonic eddies passing over the Izu‐Ogasawara Ridge

Eddy-bathymetry interactions are common in the ocean, but the full evolution of the interaction is difficult to observe below the surface. Using 17 Iridium Argo floats, we continually track two anticyclonic eddies (AEs) in the North Pacific that migrate westward and encounter the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge. Based on over 5000 Argo profiles following the two AEs, this study presents the first detailed descriptions of changes in eddy vertical structure and diapycnal mixing as the two AEs pass the Ridge. There, we find that isopycnals dome up and the eddy diameter increases, while the diapycnal mixing is enhanced-to the order of 10(-4) m(2) s(-1) or larger, in comparison with an ambient of 10(-5) m(2) s(-1). The enhanced mixing around the AE center in the upper -1000m appears where the underlying bathymetry is shallower than -4000m and is mainly sustained by tidally generated internal waves.