Slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation in the upper Pacific Ocean
Top Cited Papers
- 1 February 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 415 (6872) , 603-608
- https://doi.org/10.1038/415603a
Abstract
Decadal temperature fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean have a significant effect on marine ecosystems and the climate of North America. The physical mechanisms responsible for these fluctuations are poorly understood. Some theories ascribe a central role to the wind-driven meridional overturning circulation between the tropical and subtropical oceans. Here we show, from observations over the past 50 years, that this overturning circulation has been slowing down since the 1970s, causing a decrease in upwelling of about 25% in an equatorial strip between 9° N and 9° S. This reduction in equatorial upwelling of relatively cool water, from 47 × 106 to 35 × 106 m3 s-1, is associated with a rise in equatorial sea surface temperatures of about 0.8 °C. Another effect of the slowing circulation is a reduction in the outgassing of CO2 from the equatorial Pacific Ocean–at present the largest oceanic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.Keywords
This publication has 45 references indexed in Scilit:
- Seasonal and interannual variability of CO2 in the equatorial PacificDeep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 2002
- Circulation and ventilation flux of the Pacific OceanJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2001
- Decadal change in the south tropical Pacific in a Global Assimilation AnalysisGeophysical Research Letters, 2001
- Cause of tropical Pacific warming trendGeophysical Research Letters, 2000
- Throughflow within Makassar StraitGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- A mechanism for generating ENSO decadal variabilityGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- Pacific subtropical‐tropical thermocline water exchange in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ocean modelJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 1999
- Pacific thermocline bridge revisitedGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- On thermocline ventilation of active and passive tracersGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- A sverdrup model of the depth-integrated flow for the world ocean allowing for island circulationsGeophysical & Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, 1989