Simulated Rapid Warming of Abyssal North Pacific Waters
Warming the Deep
The coldest ocean waters are located at the bottoms of the major ocean basins, and, because it takes a long time for water to sink from the surface to these regions, they are relatively isolated from the warming trends that are now occurring at shallower depths. However, warming in these deep waters has recently been observed, sooner than anticipated. Masuda et al. (p. 319, published online 24 June) performed computer simulations of ocean circulation and found that internal waves are able to transport heat rapidly from the surface waters around Antarctica to the bottom of the North Pacific, which can occur within four decades, rather than the centuries that conventional mechanisms have suggested.
Abstract
Recent observational surveys have shown significant oceanic bottom-water warming. However, the mechanisms causing such warming remain poorly understood, and their time scales are uncertain. Here, we report computer simulations that reveal a fast teleconnection between changes in the surface air-sea heat flux off the Adélie Coast of Antarctica and the bottom-water warming in the North Pacific. In contrast to conventional estimates of a multicentennial time scale, this link is established over only four decades through the action of internal waves. Changes in the heat content of the deep ocean are thus far more sensitive to the air-sea thermal interchanges than previously considered. Our findings require a reassessment of the role of the Southern Ocean in determining the impact of atmospheric warming on deep oceanic waters.
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Supplementary Material
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References and Notes
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Science
Volume 329 | Issue 5989
16 July 2010
16 July 2010
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Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Submission history
Received: 23 February 2010
Accepted: 8 June 2010
Published in print: 16 July 2010
Acknowledgments
We thank Y. Ishikawa and the late I. Kaneko for helpful discussions and Y. Sasaki and Y. Hiyoshi for technical support. This work was supported in part by the Data Integration and Analysis System of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT).
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