Pierrick Penven

On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate

The Atlantic Ocean receives warm, saline water from the Indo-Pacific Ocean through Agulhas leakage around the southern tip of Africa. Recent findings suggest that Agulhas leakage is a crucial component of the climate system and that ongoing increases in leakage under anthropogenic warming could strengthen the Atlantic overturning circulation at a time when warming and accelerated meltwater input in the North Atlantic is predicted to weaken it. Yet in comparison with processes in the North Atlantic, the overall Agulhas system is largely overlooked as a potential climate trigger or feedback mechanism. Detailed modelling experiments—backed by palaeoceanographic and sustained modern observations—are required to establish firmly the role of the Agulhas system in a warming climate.

Average circulation, seasonal cycle, and mesoscale dynamics of the Peru Current System: A modeling approach

H isolines. The PCCC appears to be directly forced by the cyclonic wind stress curl. The model is able to produce the upwelling front, the cold water tongue which extends toward the equator and the equatorial front as described in the literature. Model seasonal changes in SST and SSH are compared to measurements. For the central PCS, model EKE is 10% to 30% lower than the observations. The model eddy diameters follow a strong equatorward increase. The injection length scales, derived from the energy spectra, strongly correlate to the Rossby radius of deformation, confirming the predominant role of baroclinic instability. At 3� S, the model solution appears to switch from a turbulent oceanic regime to an equatorial regime dominated by zonal currents.

Short communication: A Lagrangian tool for modelling ichthyoplankton dynamics

Ichthyop is a free Java tool designed to study the effects of physical and biological factors on ichthyoplankton dynamics. It incorporates the most important processes involved in fish early life: spawning, movement, growth, mortality and recruitment. The tool uses as input time series of velocity, temperature and salinity fields archived from ROMS or MARS oceanic models. It runs with a user-friendly graphic interface and generates output files that can be post-processed easily using graphic and statistical software.

Software data news: Software tools for pre- and post-processing of oceanic regional simulations

ROMSTOOLS, a collection of global data sets and a series of Matlab programs collected in an integrated toolbox, generates the grid, surface forcing, initial condition, open boundary conditions, and tides for climatological and inter-annual ROMS ocean simulations. ROMSTOOLS also generates embedded models, real-time coastal modeling systems, as well as experiments including biology. Tools for visualization, animations and diagnostics are also provided.

Generation of cyclonic eddies by the Agulhas Current in the lee of the Agulhas Bank

Anti-cyclonic rings are shed from the Agulhas Current at its retroflection. They subsequently drift off into the South Atlantic. Smaller, cyclonic eddies have also been observed in this region. The origin of these latter eddies has remained unknown. We present model results that indicate that the configuration of the southern Agulhas Current and the poleward termination of the continental shelf of Africa allows shedding of cyclonic lee eddies by a flow detachment process. Hydrographic data, thermal infrared satellite images and altimetric observations are furnished that show that this model simulation is consistent with the characteristics and the behaviour of cyclonic eddies in the region.

Agulhas Leakage Predominantly Responds to the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies

AbstractThe Agulhas Current plays a crucial role in the thermohaline circulation through its leakage into the South Atlantic Ocean. Under both past and present climates, the trade winds and westerlies could have the ability to modulate the amount of Indian–Atlantic inflow. Compelling arguments have been put forward suggesting that trade winds alone have little impact on the magnitude of Agulhas leakage. Here, employing three ocean models for robust analysis—a global coarse-resolution, a regional eddy-permitting, and a nested high-resolution eddy-resolving configuration—and systematically altering the position and intensity of the westerly wind belt in a series of sensitivity experiments, it is shown that the westerlies, in particular their intensity, control the leakage. Leakage responds proportionally to the intensity of westerlies up to a certain point. Beyond this, through the adjustment of the large-scale circulation, energetic interactions occur between the Agulhas Return Current and the Antarctic Ci...

Coastal oceanic climate change and variability from 1982 to 2009 around South Africa

Changes and fluctuations in sea surface temperature (SST) around the South African coast are analysed at a monthly scale from 1982 to 2009. There is a statistically significant negative trend of up to 0.5 °C per decade in the southern Benguela from January to August, and a cooling trend of lesser magnitude along the South Coast and in the Port Elizabeth/Port Alfred region from May to August. The cooling is due to an increase in upwelling-favourable south-easterly and easterly winds. There is a positive trend in SST of up to 0.55 °C per decade in most parts of the Agulhas Current system during all months of the year, except for KwaZulu-Natal where warming is in summer. The warming was attributed to an intensification of the Agulhas Current in response to a poleward shift of westerly winds and an increase in trade winds in the South Indian Ocean at relevant latitudes. This intensification of the Agulhas Current could also have contributed to the coastal cooling in the Port Alfred dynamic upwelling region. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is significantly positively correlated at a 95% level with the southern Benguela and South Coast from February to May, and negatively correlated with the Agulhas Current system south of 36° S. The correlation with the Antarctic Annular Oscillation is weaker and less coherent. El Niño suppresses upwelling along the coast, whereas La Niña increases it. Although there does not seem to be a linear relationship between the strength of the ENSO and the magnitude of coastal SST perturbation, El Niño and La Niña appear to be linked to major warm and cool events, respectively, at a seasonal scale in summer in the southern Benguela and along the South Coast. However, care must be taken in interpreting low-resolution reanalysed climate data (ERA40 and NCEP) and optimally interpolated Reynolds SST, such as used here.

Physical speciation of iron in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean along a transect from the subtropical domain to the Weddell Sea Gyre

Distributions of total dissolvable iron (TDFe; unfiltered), dissolved iron (DFe; 0.2 μm filtered), and soluble iron (SFe; 0.02 μm filtered) were investigated during the BONUS‐GoodHope cruise in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean (34°S/17°E-57°S/0°, February-March 2008). In the mixed layer, mean values of 0.43 ± 0.28 and 0.22 ± 0.18 nmol L−1 were measured for TDFe and DFe, respectively. In deeper waters, TDFe and DFe concentrations were 1.07 ± 0.68 and 0.52 ± 0.30 nmol L−1, respectively. DFe concentrations decreased from the north (subtropical waters) to the south (Weddell Sea Gyre). In the subtropical domain, dusts coming from Patagonia and southern Africa and inputs from the African continental margin may explain high DFe and TDFe concentrations in surface and intermediate waters. Results from numerical models gave support to these hypotheses. In the Antarctic Circumpolar Current domain, estimation of the median advective time of water masses suggests that sediment inputs from the Antarctic Peninsula, South America margin, and/or South Georgia Islands could be an important source of Fe. Except in the subtropical domain where 0.4-0.6 nmol L−1 of SFe were observed in the upper 1500 m, all stations exhibited values close to 0.1-0.2 nmol L−1 in surface and 0.3-0.5 nmol L−1 in deeper waters. For all stations, colloidal Fe (CFe) was a minor fraction of DFe in surface waters and increased with depth. Colloidal aggregation, sinking of CFe, and assimilation of SFe, followed by rapid exchange between the two fractions, are suspected to occur.

Eddies in Eastern Boundary Subtropical Upwelling Systems

Over the last decade, mesoscale-resolving ocean models of eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBS) have helped improve our understanding of the functioning of EBS and, in particular, assess the role of eddy activity in these systems. We review the main achievements in this regard and highlight remaining issues and challenges. In EBS, eddy activity arises from baroclinic/barotropic instability of the inshore and also offshore currents. Mesoscale eddies play a significant (although not leading) role in shaping the EBS dynamical structure, both directly and through associated submesoscale activity (i.e., primarily frontal). They do so by modifying both momentum and tracer balances in ways that cannot simply be understood in terms of diffusion. The relative degree to which these assertions about eddy activity and eddy role apply to each of the four major EBS (Canary, Benguela, Peru–Chile, and California Current Systems) remains to be established. Besides resolving the eddies, benefits from EBS high-resolution modeling include the possibility of accounting for the fine-scale structures of the nearshore wind, a better representation of the Ekman-driven coastal divergence, and (at resolution  (1 km) or lower) inclusion of submesoscale (i.e., mainly frontal) processes. Recent numerical experiments suggest that accounting for these various processes in climate models, through resolution increase (possibly locally) or parameterization, would lead to significant basin-scale bias reduction. The mechanisms involved in upscaling from EBS toward the larger scale remain to be fully elucidated.

Simulation of a coastal jet retention process using a barotropic model

In the southern Benguela, sardine and anchovy spawn on the Western Agulhas Bank. Eggs and larvae are transported to the West coast nursery ground by a coastal current. Once the larvae reach the West coast, retention within the favorable coastal domain is key to larvae survival and recruitment. The Cape Columbine-St Helena Bay area is the main nursery ground along the West Coast. In this area, the interaction between upwelling and topography results in the formation of an upwelling plume. The plume, and the associated circulation patterns, is thought to be the mechanism providing retention within the coastal domain. The dynamics of the plume are studied using a set of numerical experiments. It is shown that an equatorward wind forcing produces a cyclonic eddy in the lee of Cape Columbine. A balance between advection and bottom friction regulates the evolution of this eddy. The eddy contributes to create a dynamic boundary between the coastal and the offshore domains. Retention induced by the eddy is quantified using a tracer. The magnitude of retention is positively related to the wind for weak to moderate wind intensities. For strong wind intensity, retention reaches a maximum or slightly decreases. This is in agreement with previous results relating recruitment success with wind speed.