Rykaczewski Ryan R.

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Rykaczewski
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Ryan R.
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  • Article
    Factors challenging our ability to detect long-term trends in ocean chlorophyll
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2013-04-23) Beaulieu, C. ; Henson, Stephanie A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Dunne, John P. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Rykaczewski, Ryan R. ; Bopp, Laurent
    Global climate change is expected to affect the ocean's biological productivity. The most comprehensive information available about the global distribution of contemporary ocean primary productivity is derived from satellite data. Large spatial patchiness and interannual to multidecadal variability in chlorophyll a concentration challenges efforts to distinguish a global, secular trend given satellite records which are limited in duration and continuity. The longest ocean color satellite record comes from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), which failed in December 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean color sensors are beyond their originally planned operational lifetime. Successful retrieval of a quality signal from the current Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument, or successful launch of the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) expected in 2014 will hopefully extend the ocean color time series and increase the potential for detecting trends in ocean productivity in the future. Alternatively, a potential discontinuity in the time series of ocean chlorophyll a, introduced by a change of instrument without overlap and opportunity for cross-calibration, would make trend detection even more challenging. In this paper, we demonstrate that there are a few regions with statistically significant trends over the ten years of SeaWiFS data, but at a global scale the trend is not large enough to be distinguished from noise. We quantify the degree to which red noise (autocorrelation) especially challenges trend detection in these observational time series. We further demonstrate how discontinuities in the time series at various points would affect our ability to detect trends in ocean chlorophyll a. We highlight the importance of maintaining continuous, climate-quality satellite data records for climate-change detection and attribution studies.
  • Article
    Ocean climate observing requirements in support of climate research and climate information
    (Frontiers Media, 2019-07-31) Stammer, Detlef ; Bracco, Annalisa ; AchutaRao, Krishna ; Beal, Lisa M. ; Bindoff, Nathaniel L. ; Braconnot, Pascale ; Cai, Wenju ; Chen, Dake ; Collins, Matthew ; Danabasoglu, Gokhan ; Dewitte, Boris ; Farneti, Riccardo ; Fox-Kemper, Baylor ; Fyfe, John ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Jayne, Steven R. ; Lazar, Alban ; Lengaigne, Matthieu ; Lin, Xiaopei ; Marsland, Simon ; Minobe, Shoshiro ; Monteiro, Pedro M. S. ; Robinson, Walter ; Roxy, Mathew Koll ; Rykaczewski, Ryan R. ; Speich, Sabrina ; Smith, Inga J. ; Solomon, Amy ; Storto, Andrea ; Takahashi, Ken ; Toniazzo, Thomas ; Vialard, Jérôme
    Natural variability and change of the Earth’s climate have significant global societal impacts. With its large heat and carbon capacity and relatively slow dynamics, the ocean plays an integral role in climate, and provides an important source of predictability at seasonal and longer timescales. In addition, the ocean provides the slowly evolving lower boundary to the atmosphere, driving, and modifying atmospheric weather. Understanding and monitoring ocean climate variability and change, to constrain and initialize models as well as identify model biases for improved climate hindcasting and prediction, requires a scale-sensitive, and long-term observing system. A climate observing system has requirements that significantly differ from, and sometimes are orthogonal to, those of other applications. In general terms, they can be summarized by the simultaneous need for both large spatial and long temporal coverage, and by the accuracy and stability required for detecting the local climate signals. This paper reviews the requirements of a climate observing system in terms of space and time scales, and revisits the question of which parameters such a system should encompass to meet future strategic goals of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), with emphasis on ocean and sea-ice covered areas. It considers global as well as regional aspects that should be accounted for in designing observing systems in individual basins. Furthermore, the paper discusses which data-driven products are required to meet WCRP research and modeling needs, and ways to obtain them through data synthesis and assimilation approaches. Finally, it addresses the need for scientific capacity building and international collaboration in support of the collection of high-quality measurements over the large spatial scales and long time-scales required for climate research, bridging the scientific rational to the required resources for implementation.
  • Article
    Seasonal-to-interannual prediction of North American coastal marine ecosystems: forecast methods, mechanisms of predictability, and priority developments
    (Elsevier, 2020-02-20) Jacox, Michael ; Alexander, Michael A. ; Siedlecki, Samantha A. ; Chen, Ke ; Kwon, Young-Oh ; Brodie, Stephanie ; Ortiz, Ivonne ; Tommasi, Desiree ; Widlansky, Matthew J. ; Barrie, Daniel ; Capotondi, Antonietta ; Cheng, Wei ; Di Lorenzo, Emanuele ; Edwards, Christopher ; Fiechter, Jerome ; Fratantoni, Paula S. ; Hazen, Elliott L. ; Hermann, Albert J. ; Kumar, Arun ; Miller, Arthur J. ; Pirhalla, Douglas ; Pozo Buil, Mercedes ; Ray, Sulagna ; Sheridan, Scott ; Subramanian, Aneesh C. ; Thompson, Philip ; Thorne, Lesley ; Annamalai, Hariharasubramanian ; Aydin, Kerim ; Bograd, Steven ; Griffis, Roger B. ; Kearney, Kelly ; Kim, Hyemi ; Mariotti, Annarita ; Merrifield, Mark ; Rykaczewski, Ryan R.
    Marine ecosystem forecasting is an area of active research and rapid development. Promise has been shown for skillful prediction of physical, biogeochemical, and ecological variables on a range of timescales, suggesting potential for forecasts to aid in the management of living marine resources and coastal communities. However, the mechanisms underlying forecast skill in marine ecosystems are often poorly understood, and many forecasts, especially for biological variables, rely on empirical statistical relationships developed from historical observations. Here, we review statistical and dynamical marine ecosystem forecasting methods and highlight examples of their application along U.S. coastlines for seasonal-to-interannual (1–24 month) prediction of properties ranging from coastal sea level to marine top predator distributions. We then describe known mechanisms governing marine ecosystem predictability and how they have been used in forecasts to date. These mechanisms include physical atmospheric and oceanic processes, biogeochemical and ecological responses to physical forcing, and intrinsic characteristics of species themselves. In reviewing the state of the knowledge on forecasting techniques and mechanisms underlying marine ecosystem predictability, we aim to facilitate forecast development and uptake by (i) identifying methods and processes that can be exploited for development of skillful regional forecasts, (ii) informing priorities for forecast development and verification, and (iii) improving understanding of conditional forecast skill (i.e., a priori knowledge of whether a forecast is likely to be skillful). While we focus primarily on coastal marine ecosystems surrounding North America (and the U.S. in particular), we detail forecast methods, physical and biological mechanisms, and priority developments that are globally relevant.
  • Article
    Global 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, Linlin
    Ocean 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.