Acta Oceanologica Sinica最新文献

Negative Indian Ocean Dipole (nIOD) can exert great impacts on global climate and can also strongly influence the climate in China. Early nIOD is a major type of nIOD, which can induce more pronounced climate anomalies in summer than La Niña-related nIOD. However, the characteristics and triggering mechanisms of early nIOD are unclear. Our results based on reanalysis datasets indicate that the early nIOD and La Niña-related nIOD are the two major types of nIOD, and the former accounts for over one third of all the nIOD events in the past six decades. These two types of nIODs are similar in their intensities, but are different in their spatial patterns and seasonal cycles. The early nIOD, which develops in spring and peaks in summer, is one season earlier than the La Niña-related nIOD. The spatial pattern of the wind anomaly associated with early nIOD exhibits a winter monsoon-like pattern, with strong westerly anomalies in the equatorial Indian Ocean and eastly anomalies in the northern Indian Ocean. Opposite to the triggering mechanism of early positve IOD, the early nIOD is induced by delayed Indian summer monsoon onset. The results of this study are helpful for improving the prediction skill of IOD and its climate impacts.

The effects of surf zone eddy generated by alongshore currents on the deformation and transport of dye are still poorly understood, and related tracer release experiments are lacking. Therefore, a tracer release laboratory experiment was conducted under monochromatic, unidirectional incident waves with a large incident angle (30°) on a plane beach with a 1:100 slope in a large wave basin. A charge-coupled device suspended above the basin recorded the dye patch image. The evolution of eddy dye patch was observed and the transport and diffusion were analyzed based on the collected images. Subsequently, a linear instability numerical model was adopted to calculate the perturbation velocity field at the initial stage. The observation and image processing results show that surf zone eddy patches occurred and were separated from the original dye patches. Our numerical analysis results demonstrate that the structure of the perturbation velocity field is consistent with the experimental observations, and that the ejection of eddy patches shoreward or offshore may be ascribed to the double vortex.

The importance of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) in influencing zonally asymmetric changes in Antarctic surface air temperature (SAT) has been established. However, previous studies have primarily concentrated on examining the combined impact of the contrasting phases of the AMO and IPO, which have been dominant since the advent of satellite observations in 1979. This study utilizes long-term reanalysis data to investigate the impact of four combinations of +AMO+IPO, −AMO−IPO, +AMO−IPO, and −AMO+IPO on Antarctic SAT over the past 115 years. The +AMO phase is characterized by a spatial mean temperature amplitude of up to 0.5°C over the North Atlantic Ocean, accompanied by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical eastern Pacific and negative SST anomalies in the extratropical-mid-latitude western Pacific, which are indicative of the +IPO phase. The Antarctic SAT exhibits contrasting spatial patterns during the +AMO+IPO and +AMO−IPO periods. However, during the −AMO+IPO period, apart from the Antarctic Peninsula and the vicinity of the Weddell Sea, the entire Antarctic region experiences a warming trend. The most pronounced signal in the SAT anomalies is observed during the austral autumn, whereas the combination of −AMO and −IPO exhibits the smallest magnitude across all the combinations. The wavetrain excited by the SST anomalies associated with the AMO and IPO induces upper-level and surface atmospheric circulation anomalies, which alter the SAT anomalies. Furthermore, downward longwave radiation anomalies related to anomalous cloud cover play a crucial role. In the future, if the phases of AMO and IPO were to reverse (AMO transitioning to a negative phase and IPO transitioning to a positive phase), Antarctica could potentially face more pronounced warming and accelerated melting compared to the current observations.

Antarctic sea ice is an important part of the Earth’s atmospheric system, and satellite remote sensing is an important technology for observing Antarctic sea ice. Whether Chinese Haiyang-2B (HY-2B) satellite altimeter data could be used to estimate sea ice freeboard and provide alternative Antarctic sea ice thickness information with a high precision and long time series, as other radar altimetry satellites can, needs further investigation. This paper proposed an algorithm to discriminate leads and then retrieve sea ice freeboard and thickness from HY-2B radar altimeter data. We first collected the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ice surface temperature (IST) product from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to extract leads from the Antarctic waters and verified their accuracy through Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar images. Second, a surface classification decision tree was generated for HY-2B satellite altimeter measurements of the Antarctic waters to extract leads and calculate local sea surface heights. We then estimated the Antarctic sea ice freeboard and thickness based on local sea surface heights and the static equilibrium equation. Finally, the retrieved HY-2B Antarctic sea ice thickness was compared with the CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness and the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) ship-based observed sea ice thickness. The results indicate that our classification decision tree constructed for HY-2B satellite altimeter measurements was reasonable, and the root mean square error of the obtained sea ice thickness compared to the ship measurements was 0.62 m. The proposed sea ice thickness algorithm for the HY-2B radar satellite fills a gap in this application domain for the HY-series satellites and can be a complement to existing Antarctic sea ice thickness products; this algorithm could provide long-time-series and large-scale sea ice thickness data that contribute to research on global climate change.

An anisotropic diffusion filter can be used to model a flow-dependent background error covariance matrix, which can be achieved by solving the advection-diffusion equation. Because of the directionality of the advection term, the discrete method needs to be chosen very carefully. The finite analytic method is an alternative scheme to solve the advection-diffusion equation. As a combination of analytical and numerical methods, it not only has high calculation accuracy but also holds the characteristic of the auto upwind. To demonstrate its ability, the one-dimensional steady and unsteady advection-diffusion equation numerical examples are respectively solved by the finite analytic method. The more widely used upwind difference method is used as a control approach. The result indicates that the finite analytic method has higher accuracy than the upwind difference method. For the two-dimensional case, the finite analytic method still has a better performance. In the three-dimensional variational assimilation experiment, the finite analytic method can effectively improve analysis field accuracy, and its effect is significantly better than the upwind difference and the central difference method. Moreover, it is still a more effective solution method in the strong flow region where the advective-diffusion filter performs most prominently.

To effectively extract multi-scale information from observation data and improve computational efficiency, a multi-scale second-order autoregressive recursive filter (MSRF) method is designed. The second-order autoregressive filter used in this study has been attempted to replace the traditional first-order recursive filter used in spatial multi-scale recursive filter (SMRF) method. The experimental results indicate that the MSRF scheme successfully extracts various scale information resolved by observations. Moreover, compared with the SMRF scheme, the MSRF scheme improves computational accuracy and efficiency to some extent. The MSRF scheme can not only propagate to a longer distance without the attenuation of innovation, but also reduce the mean absolute deviation between the reconstructed sea ice concentration results and observations reduced by about 3.2 % compared to the SMRF scheme. On the other hand, compared with traditional first-order recursive filters using in the SMRF scheme that multiple filters are executed, the MSRF scheme only needs to perform two filter processes in one iteration, greatly improving filtering efficiency. In the two-dimensional experiment of sea ice concentration, the calculation time of the MSRF scheme is only 1/7 of that of SMRF scheme. This means that the MSRF scheme can achieve better performance with less computational cost, which is of great significance for further application in real-time ocean or sea ice data assimilation systems in the future.

Arctic sea ice is broadly regarded as an indicator and amplifier of global climate change. The rapid changes in Arctic sea ice have been widely concerned. However, the spatiotemporal changes in the horizontal and vertical dimensions of Arctic sea ice and its asymmetry during the melt and freeze seasons are rarely quantified simultaneously based on multiple sources of the same long time series. In this study, the spatiotemporal variation and freeze-thaw asymmetry of Arctic sea ice were investigated from both the horizontal and vertical dimensions during 1979–2020 based on remote sensing and assimilation data. The results indicated that Arctic sea ice was declining at a remarkably high rate of −5.4 × 10⁴ km²/a in sea ice area (SIA) and −2.2 cm/a in sea ice thickness (SIT) during 1979 to 2020, and the reduction of SIA and SIT was the largest in summer and the smallest in winter. Spatially, compared with other sub-regions, SIA showed a sharper declining trend in the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, and East Siberian Sea, while SIT presented a larger downward trend in the northern Canadian Archipelago, northern Greenland, and the East Siberian Sea. Regarding to the seasonal trend of sea ice on sub-region scale, the reduction rate of SIA exhibited an apparent spatial heterogeneity among seasons, especially in summer and winter, i.e., the sub-regions linked to the open ocean exhibited a higher decline rate in winter; however, the other sub-regions blocked by the coastlines presented a greater decline rate in summer. For SIT, the sub-regions such as the Beaufort Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, Central Arctic, and Canadian Archipelago always showed a higher downward rate in all seasons. Furthermore, a striking freeze-thaw asymmetry of Arctic sea ice was also detected. Comparing sea ice changes in different dimensions, sea ice over most regions in the Arctic showed an early retreat and rapid advance in the horizontal dimension but late melting and gradual freezing in the vertical dimension. The amount of sea ice melting and freezing was disequilibrium in the Arctic during the considered period, and the rate of sea ice melting was 0.3 × 10⁴ km²/a and 0.01 cm/a higher than that of freezing in the horizontal and vertical dimensions, respectively. Moreover, there were notable shifts in the melting and freezing of Arctic sea ice in 1997/2003 and 2000/2004, respectively, in the horizontal/vertical dimension.

The flexed frustules in pennate diatoms are usually associated with monoraphid diatoms. Interestingly, we found a biraphid diatom species with flexed frustules in an offshore intertidal beach environment on Weizhou Island, Beihai City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Therefore, based on morphological characteristics, we described a new genus of diatoms Yuzaoea sinensis gen. et sp. nov. CH Li, HH Liu, YH Gao & CP Chen. The frustule of this genus is characterized by heterogeneous frustule with one concave valve and one convex valve, complete raphe on both valves, straight and moderately eccentric raphe, uniseriate striae and girdle bands with a single row of areolae. The most identifying feature of this genus was the flexed frustule, which is rare in biraphid diatoms and common in monoraphid diatoms. We compared the morphometric characteristics of genus Yuzaoea with genus Rhoikoneis and several genera within the family Rhoicospheniaceae, including Rhoicosphenia, Campylopyxis, and Cuneolus. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rRNA and rbcL showed that the genus Yuzaoea was the sister group to the clade of Rhoicosphenia with a high support value (bootstrap values = 100%), and the clade “Yuzaoea+Rhoicosphenia” was sister to the clade of monoraphid diatoms, in which the genera Achnanthidium, Planothidium and some Cocconeis with high support values (bootstrap = 100%). Morphologically, the genus Yuzaoea shares many morphological features with monoraphid diatoms like genera Achnanthidium and Planothidium and the members within the Rhoicospheniaceae. Therefore, based on a combined morphological studies and phylogenetic results we suggested that this branch may represented the evolution of one kind monoraphid diatoms, from biraphid diatoms (e.g. genus Yuzaoea), to incompleted biraphid diatoms (e.g. genera Rhoicosphenia, Campylopyxis), to monoraphid diatoms (e.g. genera Achnanthidium and Planothidium).

The tephra layers in multiple sediment cores from the offshore region of the Mahanadi basin in the northern Bay of Bengal were investigated for possible volcanic sources. The glass shards from those tephra layers were studied for size distribution, texture, and elemental geochemistry to establish chronostratigraphic markers for regional and global Quaternary correlation. The textural features of fine-grained (silty) volcanic glasses suggest the distal source of these tephra deposits. Major element composition with elevated SiO₂ contents ranging between 75%–76% and dominance of K₂O (> 4.5%) over CaO (< 0.9%) suggest ashes have originated from siliceous rhyolitic melts, similar to the petrographic composition of tephra from the Toba volcano. The bulk trace element compositions of the same glass shards were comparable with those reported in the youngest Toba tephra reported elsewhere. Likewise, the LREE-dominated chondrite normalized REE profiles of tephra from the Mahanadi basin closely resemble the characteristic REE patterns in Toba ash from other parts of the Indian Ocean and thus confirmed the contribution of the youngest Toba super-eruption for this ash layers.

The southwest Lahad Datu felsic rocks were previously thought to have formed in the late Triassic as part of the microcontinental crystalline basement. Based on U-Pb ages, geochemistry, and the Hf isotopes of zircon from the southeastern Sabah gabbro and granite, in this study, the tectonic properties of the Sabah area during the Triassic were investigated. The weighted average U-Pb zircon ages of the gabbro and granite samples were determined to be (230.9 ± 2.5)Ma and (207.1 ± 3.3)Ma, respectively. The granite had SiO₂ contents of 66.54%–79.47%, low TiO₂ contents of 0.08%−0.3%, Al₂O₃ contents of 10.97%–16.22%, Na₂O contents of 5.91%–6.39%, and low K₂O contents of 0.15%–0.65%. The chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns exhibit light REE enrichment, with right-sloping curves. The primitive mantle-normalized trace element spider diagrams exhibit Th, U, La, Sr, and Zr enrichment and Nb, Ta, P and Ti depletions, i.e., the geochemical characteristics of typical island arc igneous rocks. The tectonic discriminant diagram indicates that the granite is a volcanic arc granite. The Hf isotopic analysis of gabbro zircon revealed that the zircons have ε_Hf(t) values of 12.08–16.24 (mean of 14.32) and two-stage model ages (t_DM2) of 223–491 Ma (mean of 347 Ma). This indicates that the diagenetic magma of the gabbro was mainly derived from melting of newly formed crustal materials. The ophiolite in southeast Sabah has existed since the early Late Triassic. The crystalline basement granite in southeastern Sabah was emplaced lasted from late Triassic to early Cretaceous. Based on previous studies and global plate reconstruction models, it is speculated that the southeastern Sabah granite may have been formed in an island arc setting, i.e., where the oceanic crust of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean collided with the oceanic crust of the Panthalassa Ocean.