Brandt
Peter
Brandt
Peter
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ArticleEvidence for the maintenance of slowly varying equatorial currents by intraseasonal variability(John Wiley & Sons, 2018-02-09) Greatbatch, Richard J. ; Claus, Martin ; Brandt, Peter ; Matthießen, Jan-Dirk ; Tuchen, Franz Philip ; Ascani, Francois ; Dengler, Marcus ; Toole, John M. ; Roth, Christina ; Farrar, J. ThomasRecent evidence from mooring data in the equatorial Atlantic reveals that semiannual and longer time scale ocean current variability is close to being resonant with equatorial basin modes. Here we show that intraseasonal variability, with time scales of tens of days, provides the energy to maintain these resonant basin modes against dissipation. The mechanism is analogous to that by which storm systems in the atmosphere act to maintain the atmospheric jet stream. We demonstrate the mechanism using an idealized model setup that exhibits equatorial deep jets. The results are supported by direct analysis of available mooring data from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean covering a depth range of several thousand meters. The analysis of the mooring data suggests that the same mechanism also helps maintain the seasonal variability.
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ArticleChallenges and prospects for reducing coupled climate model SST biases in the eastern tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans : the U.S. CLIVAR Eastern Tropical Oceans Synthesis Working Group(American Meteorological Society, 2017-01-12) Zuidema, Paquita ; Chang, Ping ; Medeiros, Brian ; Kirtman, Benjamin ; Mechoso, Roberto ; Schneider, Edwin K. ; Toniazzo, Thomas ; Richter, Ingo ; Small, R. Justin ; Bellomo, Katinka ; Brandt, Peter ; de Szoeke, Simon ; Farrar, J. Thomas ; Jung, Eunsil ; Kato, Seiji ; Li, Mingkui ; Patricola, Christina ; Wang, Zaiyu ; Wood, Robert ; Xu, ZhaoWell-known problems trouble coupled general circulation models of the eastern Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. Model climates are significantly more symmetric about the equator than is observed. Model sea surface temperatures are biased warm south and southeast of the equator, and the atmosphere is too rainy within a band south of the equator. Near-coastal eastern equatorial SSTs are too warm, producing a zonal SST gradient in the Atlantic opposite in sign to that observed. The U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program (CLIVAR) Eastern Tropical Ocean Synthesis Working Group (WG) has pursued an updated assessment of coupled model SST biases, focusing on the surface energy balance components, on regional error sources from clouds, deep convection, winds, and ocean eddies; on the sensitivity to model resolution; and on remote impacts. Motivated by the assessment, the WG makes the following recommendations: 1) encourage identification of the specific parameterizations contributing to the biases in individual models, as these can be model dependent; 2) restrict multimodel intercomparisons to specific processes; 3) encourage development of high-resolution coupled models with a concurrent emphasis on parameterization development of finer-scale ocean and atmosphere features, including low clouds; 4) encourage further availability of all surface flux components from buoys, for longer continuous time periods, in persistently cloudy regions; and 5) focus on the eastern basin coastal oceanic upwelling regions, where further opportunities for observational–modeling synergism exist.
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ArticleThe tropical Atlantic observing system(Frontiers Media, 2019-05-10) Foltz, Gregory R. ; Brandt, Peter ; Richter, Ingo ; Rodriguez-fonseca, Belen ; Hernandez, Fabrice ; Dengler, Marcus ; Rodrigues, Regina ; Schmidt, Jörn Oliver ; Yu, Lisan ; Lefevre, Nathalie ; Cotrim Da Cunha, Leticia ; McPhaden, Michael J. ; Araujo, Moacyr ; Karstensen, Johannes ; Hahn, Johannes ; Martín-Rey, Marta ; Patricola, Christina ; Poli, Paul ; Zuidema, Paquita ; Hummels, Rebecca ; Perez, Renellys ; Hatje, Vanessa ; Luebbecke, Joke ; Polo, Irene ; Lumpkin, Rick ; Bourlès, Bernard ; Asuquo, Francis Emile ; Lehodey, Patrick ; Conchon, Anna ; Chang, Ping ; Dandin, Philippe ; Schmid, Claudia ; Sutton, Adrienne J. ; Giordani, Hervé ; Xue, Yan ; Illig, Serena ; Losada, Teresa ; Grodsky, Semyon A. ; Gasparin, Florent ; Lee, Tong ; Mohino, Elsa ; Nobre, Paulo ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Keenlyside, Noel S. ; Garcon, Veronique Cameille ; Sanchez-Gomez, Emilia ; Nnamchi, Hyacinth ; Drevillon, Marie ; Storto, Andrea ; Remy, Elisabeth ; Lazar, Alban ; Speich, Sabrina ; Goes, Marlos Pereira ; Dorrington, Tarquin ; Johns, William E. ; Moum, James N. ; Robinson, Carol ; Perruche, Coralie ; de Souza, Ronald Buss ; Gaye, Amadou ; Lopez-Parages, Jorge ; Monerie, Paul-Arthur ; Castellanos, Paola ; Benson, Nsikak U. ; Hounkonnou, Mahouton Norbert ; Trotte Duha, Janice ; Laxenaire, Rémi ; Reul, Nicolashe tropical Atlantic is home to multiple coupled climate variations covering a wide range of timescales and impacting societally relevant phenomena such as continental rainfall, Atlantic hurricane activity, oceanic biological productivity, and atmospheric circulation in the equatorial Pacific. The tropical Atlantic also connects the southern and northern branches of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and receives freshwater input from some of the world’s largest rivers. To address these diverse, unique, and interconnected research challenges, a rich network of ocean observations has developed, building on the backbone of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA). This network has evolved naturally over time and out of necessity in order to address the most important outstanding scientific questions and to improve predictions of tropical Atlantic severe weather and global climate variability and change. The tropical Atlantic observing system is motivated by goals to understand and better predict phenomena such as tropical Atlantic interannual to decadal variability and climate change; multidecadal variability and its links to the meridional overturning circulation; air-sea fluxes of CO2 and their implications for the fate of anthropogenic CO2; the Amazon River plume and its interactions with biogeochemistry, vertical mixing, and hurricanes; the highly productive eastern boundary and equatorial upwelling systems; and oceanic oxygen minimum zones, their impacts on biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystems, and their feedbacks to climate. Past success of the tropical Atlantic observing system is the result of an international commitment to sustained observations and scientific cooperation, a willingness to evolve with changing research and monitoring needs, and a desire to share data openly with the scientific community and operational centers. The observing system must continue to evolve in order to meet an expanding set of research priorities and operational challenges. This paper discusses the tropical Atlantic observing system, including emerging scientific questions that demand sustained ocean observations, the potential for further integration of the observing system, and the requirements for sustaining and enhancing the tropical Atlantic observing system.
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Book chapterGlobal Oceans [in “State of the Climate in 2020”](American Meteorological Society, 2021-08-01) Johnson, Gregory C. ; Lumpkin, Rick ; Alin, Simone R. ; Amaya, Dillon J. ; Baringer, Molly O. ; Boyer, Tim ; Brandt, Peter ; Carter, Brendan ; Cetinić, Ivona ; Chambers, Don P. ; Cheng, Lijing ; Collins, Andrew U. ; Cosca, Cathy ; Domingues, Ricardo ; Dong, Shenfu ; Feely, Richard A. ; Frajka-Williams, Eleanor E. ; Franz, Bryan A. ; Gilson, John ; Goni, Gustavo J. ; Hamlington, Benjamin D. ; Herrford, Josefine ; Hu, Zeng-Zhen ; Huang, Boyin ; Ishii, Masayoshi ; Jevrejeva, Svetlana ; Kennedy, John J. ; Kersalé, Marion ; Killick, Rachel E. ; Landschützer, Peter ; Lankhorst, Matthias ; Leuliette, Eric ; Locarnini, Ricardo ; Lyman, John ; Marra, John F. ; Meinen, Christopher S. ; Merrifield, Mark ; Mitchum, Gary ; Moat, Bengamin I. ; Nerem, R. Steven ; Perez, Renellys ; Purkey, Sarah G. ; Reagan, James ; Sanchez-Franks, Alejandra ; Scannell, Hillary A. ; Schmid, Claudia ; Scott, Joel P. ; Siegel, David A. ; Smeed, David A. ; Stackhouse, Paul W. ; Sweet, William V. ; Thompson, Philip R. ; Trinanes, Joaquin ; Volkov, Denis L. ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Weller, Robert A. ; Wen, Caihong ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Widlansky, Matthew J. ; Wilber, Anne C. ; Yu, Lisan ; Zhang, Huai-MinThis chapter details 2020 global patterns in select observed oceanic physical, chemical, and biological variables relative to long-term climatologies, their differences between 2020 and 2019, and puts 2020 observations in the context of the historical record. In this overview we address a few of the highlights, first in haiku, then paragraph form: La Niña arrives, shifts winds, rain, heat, salt, carbon: Pacific—beyond. Global ocean conditions in 2020 reflected a transition from an El Niño in 2018–19 to a La Niña in late 2020. Pacific trade winds strengthened in 2020 relative to 2019, driving anomalously westward Pacific equatorial surface currents. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs), upper ocean heat content, and sea surface height all fell in the eastern tropical Pacific and rose in the western tropical Pacific. Efflux of carbon dioxide from ocean to atmosphere was larger than average across much of the equatorial Pacific, and both chlorophyll-a and phytoplankton carbon concentrations were elevated across the tropical Pacific. Less rain fell and more water evaporated in the western equatorial Pacific, consonant with increased sea surface salinity (SSS) there. SSS may also have increased as a result of anomalously westward surface currents advecting salty water from the east. El Niño–Southern Oscillation conditions have global ramifications that reverberate throughout the report.
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ArticleForcing of the Atlantic equatorial deep jets derived from observations(American Meteorological Society, 2016-11-23) Claus, Martin ; Greatbatch, Richard J. ; Brandt, Peter ; Toole, John M.The equatorial deep jets (EDJs) are a ubiquitous feature of the equatorial oceans; in the Atlantic Ocean, they are the dominant mode of interannual variability of the zonal flow at intermediate depth. On the basis of more than 10 years of moored observations of zonal velocity at 23°W, the vertically propagating EDJs are best described as superimposed oscillations of the 13th to the 23rd baroclinic modes with a dominant oscillation period for all modes of 1650 days. This period is close to the resonance period of the respective gravest equatorial basin mode for the dominant vertical modes 16 and 17. It is argued that since the equatorial basin mode is composed of linear equatorial waves, a linear reduced-gravity model can be employed for each baroclinic mode, driven by spatially homogeneous zonal forcing oscillating with the EDJ period. The fit of the model solutions to observations at 23°W yields a basinwide reconstruction of the EDJs and the associated vertical structure of their forcing. From the resulting vertical profile of mean power input and vertical energy flux on the equator, it follows that the EDJs are locally maintained over a considerable depth range, from 500 to 2500 m, with the maximum power input and vertical energy flux at 1300 m. The strong dissipation closely ties the apparent vertical propagation of energy to the vertical distribution of power input and, together with the EDJs’ prevailing downward phase propagation, requires the phase of the forcing of the EDJs to propagate downward.
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ArticleTwo decades of full-depth current velocity observations from a moored observatory in the central equatorial Atlantic at 0°N, 23°W(Frontiers Media, 2022-06-30) Tuchen, Franz Philip ; Brandt, Peter ; Hahn, Johannes ; Hummels, Rebecca ; Krahmann, Gerd ; Bourlès, Bernard ; Provost, Christine ; McPhaden, Michael J.Regional climate variability in the tropical Atlantic, from interannual to decadal time scales, is inevitably connected to changes in the strength and position of the individual components of the tropical current system with impacts on societally relevant climate hazards such as anomalous rainfall or droughts over the surrounding continents (Bourlès et al., 2019; Foltz et al., 2019). Furthermore, the lateral supply of dissolved oxygen in the tropical Atlantic upper-ocean is closely linked to the zonal current bands (Brandt et al., 2008; Brandt et al., 2012; Burmeister et al., 2020) and especially to the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and its long-term variations with potential implications for regional marine ecosystems (Brandt et al., 2021). The eastward flowing EUC is located between 70 to 200 m depth and forms one of the strongest tropical currents with maximum velocities of up to 1 m s-1 and maximum variability on seasonal time scales (Brandt et al., 2014; Johns et al., 2014). In the intermediate to deep equatorial Atlantic, variability on longer time scales is mainly governed by alternating, vertically-stacked, zonal currents (equatorial deep jets (EDJs); Johnson and Zhang, 2003). At a fixed location, the phases of these jets are propagating downward with time, implying that parts of their energy must propagate upward towards the surface (Brandt et al., 2011). In fact, a pronounced interannual cycle of about 4.5 years, that is associated with EDJs, is projected onto surface parameters such as sea surface temperature or precipitation (Brandt et al., 2011) further demonstrating the importance of understanding equatorial circulation variability and its role in tropical climate variability.
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ArticleAnnual and semiannual cycle of equatorial Atlantic circulation associated with basin-mode resonance(American Meteorological Society, 2016-10-05) Brandt, Peter ; Claus, Martin ; Greatbatch, Richard J. ; Kopte, Robert ; Toole, John M. ; Johns, William E. ; Böning, Claus W.Seasonal variability of the tropical Atlantic circulation is dominated by the annual cycle, but semiannual variability is also pronounced, despite weak forcing at that period. This study uses multiyear, full-depth velocity measurements from the central equatorial Atlantic to analyze the vertical structure of annual and semiannual variations of zonal velocity. A baroclinic modal decomposition finds that the annual cycle is dominated by the fourth mode and the semiannual cycle is dominated by the second mode. Similar local behavior is found in a high-resolution general circulation model. This simulation reveals that the annual and semiannual cycles of the respective dominant baroclinic modes are associated with characteristic basinwide structures. Using an idealized, linear, reduced-gravity model to simulate the dynamics of individual baroclinic modes, it is shown that the observed circulation variability can be explained by resonant equatorial basin modes. Corollary simulations of the reduced-gravity model with varying basin geometry (i.e., square basin vs realistic coastlines) or forcing (i.e., spatially uniform vs spatially variable wind) show a structural robustness of the simulated basin modes. A main focus of this study is the seasonal variability of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) as identified in recent observational studies. Main characteristics of the observed EUC including seasonal variability of transport, core depth, and maximum core velocity can be explained by the linear superposition of the dominant equatorial basin modes as obtained from the reduced-gravity model.
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ArticleIntegrated observations of global surface winds, currents, and waves: Requirements and challenges for the next decade(Frontiers Media, 2019-07-24) Villas Bôas, Ana B. ; Ardhuin, Fabrice ; Ayet, Alex ; Bourassa, Mark A. ; Brandt, Peter ; Chapron, Bertrand ; Cornuelle, Bruce D. ; Farrar, J. Thomas ; Fewings, Melanie R. ; Fox-Kemper, Baylor ; Gille, Sarah T. ; Gommenginger, Christine ; Heimbach, Patrick ; Hell, Momme C. ; Li, Qing ; Mazloff, Matthew R. ; Merrifield, Sophia T. ; Mouche, Alexis ; Rio, Marie H. ; Rodriguez, Ernesto ; Shutler, Jamie D. ; Subramanian, Aneesh C. ; Terrill, Eric ; Tsamados, Michel ; Ubelmann, Clement ; van Sebille, ErikOcean surface winds, currents, and waves play a crucial role in exchanges of momentum, energy, heat, freshwater, gases, and other tracers between the ocean, atmosphere, and ice. Despite surface waves being strongly coupled to the upper ocean circulation and the overlying atmosphere, efforts to improve ocean, atmospheric, and wave observations and models have evolved somewhat independently. From an observational point of view, community efforts to bridge this gap have led to proposals for satellite Doppler oceanography mission concepts, which could provide unprecedented measurements of absolute surface velocity and directional wave spectrum at global scales. This paper reviews the present state of observations of surface winds, currents, and waves, and it outlines observational gaps that limit our current understanding of coupled processes that happen at the air-sea-ice interface. A significant challenge for the coming decade of wind, current, and wave observations will come in combining and interpreting measurements from (a) wave-buoys and high-frequency radars in coastal regions, (b) surface drifters and wave-enabled drifters in the open-ocean, marginal ice zones, and wave-current interaction “hot-spots,” and (c) simultaneous measurements of absolute surface currents, ocean surface wind vector, and directional wave spectrum from Doppler satellite sensors.
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ArticleGlobal perspectives on observing ocean boundary current systems(Frontiers Media, 2019-08-08) Todd, Robert E. ; Chavez, Francisco P. ; Clayton, Sophie A. ; Cravatte, Sophie ; Goes, Marlos Pereira ; Graco, Michelle ; Lin, Xiaopei ; Sprintall, Janet ; Zilberman, Nathalie ; Archer, Matthew ; Arístegui, Javier ; Balmaseda, Magdalena A. ; Bane, John M. ; Baringer, Molly O. ; Barth, John A. ; Beal, Lisa M. ; Brandt, Peter ; Calil, Paulo H. R. ; Campos, Edmo ; Centurioni, Luca R. ; Chidichimo, Maria Paz ; Cirano, Mauro ; Cronin, Meghan F. ; Curchitser, Enrique N. ; Davis, Russ E. ; Dengler, Marcus ; deYoung, Brad ; Dong, Shenfu ; Escribano, Ruben ; Fassbender, Andrea ; Fawcett, Sarah E. ; Feng, Ming ; Goni, Gustavo J. ; Gray, Alison R. ; Gutiérrez, Dimitri ; Hebert, Dave ; Hummels, Rebecca ; Ito, Shin-ichi ; Krug, Marjolaine ; Lacan, Francois ; Laurindo, Lucas ; Lazar, Alban ; Lee, Craig M. ; Lengaigne, Matthieu ; Levine, Naomi M. ; Middleton, John ; Montes, Ivonne ; Muglia, Michael ; Nagai, Takeyoshi ; Palevsky, Hilary I. ; Palter, Jaime B. ; Phillips, Helen E. ; Piola, Alberto R. ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Qiu, Bo ; Rodrigues, Regina ; Roughan, Moninya ; Rudnick, Daniel L. ; Rykaczewski, Ryan R. ; Saraceno, Martin ; Seim, Harvey E. ; Sen Gupta, Alexander ; Shannon, Lynne ; Sloyan, Bernadette M. ; Sutton, Adrienne J. ; Thompson, LuAnne ; van der Plas, Anja K. ; Volkov, Denis L. ; Wilkin, John L. ; Zhang, Dongxiao ; Zhang, LinlinOcean boundary current systems are key components of the climate system, are home to highly productive ecosystems, and have numerous societal impacts. Establishment of a global network of boundary current observing systems is a critical part of ongoing development of the Global Ocean Observing System. The characteristics of boundary current systems are reviewed, focusing on scientific and societal motivations for sustained observing. Techniques currently used to observe boundary current systems are reviewed, followed by a census of the current state of boundary current observing systems globally. The next steps in the development of boundary current observing systems are considered, leading to several specific recommendations.