Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents
Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents
Date
2011-11
Authors
Wu, Lixin
Cai, Wenju
Zhang, Liping
Nakamura, Hisashi
Timmermann, Axel
Joyce, Terrence M.
McPhaden, Michael J.
Alexander, Michael A.
Qiu, Bo
Visbeck, Martin
Chang, Ping
Giese, Benjamin
Cai, Wenju
Zhang, Liping
Nakamura, Hisashi
Timmermann, Axel
Joyce, Terrence M.
McPhaden, Michael J.
Alexander, Michael A.
Qiu, Bo
Visbeck, Martin
Chang, Ping
Giese, Benjamin
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Abstract
Subtropical western boundary currents are warm, fast flowing currents thatform on the western side of ocean basins. They carry warm tropical water to themid-latitudes and vent large amounts of heat and moisture to the atmospherealong their paths, affecting atmospheric jet streams and mid-latitude storms, aswell as ocean carbon uptake. The possibility that these highly energetic andnonlinear currents might change under greenhouse gas forcing has raisedsignificant concerns, but detecting such changes is challenging owing to limitedobservations. Here, using reconstructed sea surface temperature datasets andnewly developed century-long ocean and atmosphere reanalysis products, wefind that the post-1900 surface ocean warming rate over the path of thesecurrents is two to three times faster than the global mean surface ocean warmingrate. The accelerated warming is associated with a synchronous poleward shiftand/or intensification of global subtropical western boundary currents inconjunction with a systematic change in winds over both hemispheres. This enhanced warming may reduce ocean's ability to absorb anthropogenic carbondioxide over these regions. However, uncertainties in detection and attribution ofthese warming trends remain, pointing to a need for a long-term monitoringnetwork of the global western boundary currents and their extensions.
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Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Climate Change 2 (2012): 161-166, doi:10.1038/nclimate1353.