Ponte
Rui Vasques de Melo
Ponte
Rui Vasques de Melo
No Thumbnail Available
Search Results
Now showing
1 - 3 of 3
-
ArticleRiver-discharge effects on United States Atlantic and Gulf coast sea-level changes(National Academy of Sciences, 2018-07-09) Piecuch, Christopher G. ; Bittermann, Klaus ; Kemp, Andrew C. ; Ponte, Rui Vasques de Melo ; Little, Christopher M. ; Engelhart, Simon E. ; Lentz, Steven J.Identifying physical processes responsible for historical coastal sea-level changes is important for anticipating future impacts. Recent studies sought to understand the drivers of interannual to multidecadal sea-level changes on the United States Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Ocean dynamics, terrestrial water storage, vertical land motion, and melting of land ice were highlighted as important mechanisms of sea-level change along this densely populated coast on these time scales. While known to exert an important control on coastal ocean circulation, variable river discharge has been absent from recent discussions of drivers of sea-level change. We update calculations from the 1970s, comparing annual river-discharge and coastal sea-level data along the Gulf of Maine, Mid-Atlantic Bight, South Atlantic Bight, and Gulf of Mexico during 1910–2017. We show that river-discharge and sea-level changes are significantly correlated (p<0.01), such that sea level rises between 0.01 and 0.08 cm for a 1 km3 annual river-discharge increase, depending on region. We formulate a theory that describes the relation between river-discharge and halosteric sea-level changes (i.e., changes in sea level related to salinity) as a function of river discharge, Earth’s rotation, and density stratification. This theory correctly predicts the order of observed increment sea-level change per unit river-discharge anomaly, suggesting a causal relation. Our results have implications for remote sensing, climate modeling, interpreting Common Era proxy sea-level reconstructions, and projecting coastal flood risk.
-
ArticleMechanisms controlling global mean sea surface temperature determined from a state estimate(John Wiley & Sons, 2018-04-13) Ponte, Rui Vasques de Melo ; Piecuch, Christopher G.Global mean sea surface temperature ((T) over bar) is a variable of primary interest in studies of climate variability and change. The temporal evolution of (T) over bar) can be influenced by surface heat fluxes ((F) over bar)) and by diffusion ((D) over bar)) and advection ((A) over bar)) processes internal to the ocean, but quantifying the contribution of these different factors from data alone is prone to substantial uncertainties. Here we derive a closed (T) over bar) budget for the period 1993-2015 based on a global ocean state estimate, which is an exact solution of a general circulation model constrained to most extant ocean observations through advanced optimization methods. The estimated average temperature of the top (10-m thick) level in the model, taken to represent (T) over bar), shows relatively small variability at most time scales compared to (F) over bar), (D) over bar), or (A) over bar), reflecting the tendency for largely balancing effects from all the latter terms. The seasonal cycle in (T) over bar) is mostly determined by small imbalances between (F) over bar) and (D) over bar), with negligible contributions from (A) over bar). While (D) over bar) seems to simply damp (F) over bar) at the annual period, a different dynamical role for (D) over bar) at semiannual period is suggested by it being larger than (F) over bar). At periods longer than annual, (A) over bar) contributes importantly to (T) over bar) variability, pointing to the direct influence of the variable ocean circulation on (T) over bar) and mean surface climate. Plain Language Summary Global mean sea surface temperature (T) over bar) is a key metric when defining the Earth's climate. Determining what controls the evolution of (T) over bar )T is thus vital for understanding past climate variability and predicting its future evolution. Processes that control (T) over bar) involve forcing surface heat fluxes, as well as advection and diffusion of heat internal to the ocean, but their relative contributions are poorly known and difficult to assess from observations alone. Here we use advanced methods to combine models and data and derive a closed budget for (T) over bar) variability in terms of the forcing, advection, and diffusion processes. The estimated (T) over bar) shows relatively small variability compared to surface forcing, advection, or diffusion, reflecting the tendency for largely balancing effects from all the latter terms. The seasonal cycle in (T) over bar) is mostly determined by small imbalances between forcing and diffusion, with negligible contributions from advection. Diffusion does not always act as a simple damping of forcing surface fluxes, however. In addition, at periods longer than annual, advection contributes importantly to (T) over bar) variability. The results point to the direct influence of the variable ocean circulation on (T) over bar) and the Earth's surface climate.
-
ThesisObservations and modelling of deep equatorial currents in the central Pacific(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1988-01) Ponte, Rui Vasques de MeloAnalysis of vertical profiles of absolute horizontal velocity collected in January 1981, February 1982 and April 1982 in the central equatorial Pacific as part of the Pacific Equatorial Ocean Dynamics (PEQUOD) program, revealed two significant narrow band spectral peaks in the zonal velocity records, centered at vertical wavelengths of 560 and 350 stretched meters (sm). Both signals were present in all three cruises, but the 350 sm peak showed a more steady character in amplitude and a higher signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, its vertical scales corresponded to the scales of the conspicuous alternating flows generically called the equatorial deep jets in the past (the same terminology will be used here). Meridional velocity and vertical displacement spectra did not show any such energetic features. Energy in the 560 sm band roughly doubled between January 1981 and April 1982. Time lagged coherence results suggested upward phase propagation at time scales of about 4 years. East-west phase lines computed from zonally lagged coherences, tilted downward towards the west, implying westward phase propagation. Estimates of zonal wavelength (on the order of 10000 km) and period based on these coherence calculations, and the observed energy meridional structure at this vertical wavenumber band, seem consistent, within experimental errors, with the presence of a first meridional mode long Rossby wave packet, weakly modulated in the zonal direction. The equatorial deep jets, identified with the peak centered at 350 sm, are best defined as a finite narrow band process in vertical wavenumber (311-400 sm), accounting for only 20% of the total variance present in the broad band energetic background. At the jets wavenumber band, latitudinal energy scaling compared well with Kelvin wave theoretical values and a general tilt of phase lines downward towards the east yielded estimates of 10000-16000 km for the zonal wavelengths. Time-lagged coherence calculations revealed evidence for vertical shifting of the jets on interannual time scales. Interpretation of results in terms of single frequency linear wave processes led to inconsistencies, but finite bandwidth (in frequency and wavenumber) Kelvin wave processes of periods on the order of three to five years could account for the observations. Thus, the records do not preclude equatorial waves as a reasonable kinematic description of the jets.