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Read Full Article (file size: 582259 bytes) Cited by
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 34,
L11609,
doi:10.1029/2007GL030100,
2007
Impact of ocean color on the maintenance of the Pacific Cold Tongue
W. G. Anderson
Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
A. Gnanadesikan
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
R. Hallberg
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
J. Dunne
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
B. L. Samuels
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Abstract
The impact of the penetration length scale of shortwave radiation into the surface ocean is investigated with a fully coupled
ocean, atmosphere, land and ice model. Oceanic shortwave radiation penetration is assumed to depend on the chlorophyll concentration.
As chlorophyll concentrations increase the distribution of shortwave heating becomes shallower. This change in heat distribution
impacts mixed-layer depth. This study shows that removing all chlorophyll from the ocean results in a system that tends strongly
towards an El Niño state—suggesting that chlorophyll is implicated in maintenance of the Pacific cold tongue. The regions
most responsible for this response are located off-equator and correspond to the oligotrophic gyres. Results from a suite
of surface chlorophyll perturbation experiments suggest a potential positive feedback between chlorophyll concentration and
a non-local coupled response in the fully coupled ocean-atmosphere system.
Received 21
March
2007;
accepted 11
May
2007;
published 12
June
2007.
Keywords: ocean modeling;
climate;
chlorophyll.
Index Terms: 3339 Atmospheric Processes: Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504); 4255 Oceanography: General: Numerical modeling (0545, 0560); 4263 Oceanography: General: Ocean predictability and prediction (3238); 4264 Oceanography: General: Ocean optics (0649); 4922 Paleoceanography: El Nino (4522).
Read Full Article (file size: 582259 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Anderson, W. G., A. Gnanadesikan, R. Hallberg, J. Dunne, and B. L. Samuels
(2007),
Impact of ocean color on the maintenance of the Pacific Cold Tongue,
Geophys. Res. Lett.,
34,
L11609,
doi:10.1029/2007GL030100.
Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
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