Recent freshening of the East Australian Current and its eddies
The East Australian Current (EAC) has a relatively weak mean flow and an energetic eddy field that dominates the circulation. The properties of the mean flow have been studied in detail, but the changes in the eddy field have received little attention. We analyze Argo temperature and salinity profil...
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Published in | Geophysical research letters Vol. 42; no. 21; pp. 9369 - 9378 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
16.11.2015
John Wiley & Sons, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The East Australian Current (EAC) has a relatively weak mean flow and an energetic eddy field that dominates the circulation. The properties of the mean flow have been studied in detail, but the changes in the eddy field have received little attention. We analyze Argo temperature and salinity profiles for 2005–2012 to construct a picture of the time‐mean and time‐varying properties of EAC eddies. We find that eddies and the surrounding waters of the western Tasman Sea are freshening at a rate of 0.017–0.025 practical salinity unit/yr over the top 100 m, with no significant temperature change. Consistent with the observations, fields from an eddy‐resolving ocean model show freshening, with no temperature trend. Moreover, the model results indicate that observed changes are significant in the context of the variability over the last 20 years and may be part of a multiyear (perhaps decadal) cycle. We attribute the freshening of the region to increased precipitation off Eastern Australia.
Key Points
Argo float data show that the EAC and its eddies have freshened over 2005–2012
There is no warming of the EAC and eddies in neither Argo, nor XBT, nor model fields
The freshening is caused by increased precipitation off Eastern Australia |
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Bibliography: | NOAA Office of Climate Observations ArticleID:GRL53655 istex:93F2FFE155C693FD37FC88FDC6E50398B8CC07AB Scripps High Resolution XBT program ark:/67375/WNG-D8X0Q81L-F Figure S1Figure S2Figure S3Figure S4Figure S5Figure S6Figure S7Figure S8Figure S9Figure S10 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
DOI: | 10.1002/2015GL066050 |