Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses.

Unlabelled: Warming of the North Atlantic Ocean from the 1950s to 2012 is analyzed on neutral density surfaces and vertical levels in the upper 2000 m. Three reanalyses and two observational data sets are compared. The net gain of 5 × 10 J in the upper 2000 m is roughly 30% of the global ocean warming over this period.

Atmospheric blocking and Atlantic multidecadal ocean variability.

Atmospheric blocking over the northern North Atlantic, which involves isolation of large regions of air from the westerly circulation for 5 days or more, influences fundamentally the ocean circulation and upper ocean properties by affecting wind patterns. Winters with clusters of more frequent blocking between Greenland and western Europe correspond to a warmer, more saline subpolar ocean. The correspondence between blocked westerly winds and warm ocean holds in recent decadal episodes (especially 1996 to 2010).

Decline of subpolar North Atlantic circulation during the 1990s.

Observations of sea surface height reveal that substantial changes have occurred over the past decade in the mid- to high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean. TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data show that subpolar sea surface height increased during the 1990s, and the geostrophic velocity derived from altimeter data exhibits declining subpolar gyre circulation. Combining the data from earlier satellites, we find that subpolar circulation may have been weaker in the late 1990s than in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Jets.

This is a discussion of concentrated large-scale flows in planetary atmospheres and oceans, argued from the viewpoint of basic geophysical fluid dynamics. We give several elementary examples in which these flows form jets on rotating spheres. Jet formation occurs under a variety of circumstances: when flows driven by external stress have a rigid boundary which can balance the Coriolis force, and at which further concentration can be caused by the beta effect; when there are singular lines like the line of vanishing windstress or windstress-curl, or the Equator; when compact sources of momentum, heat or mass radiate jet-like beta plumes along latitude circles; when random external stirring of the fluid becomes organized by the beta effect into jets; when internal instability of the mass field generates zonal flow which then is concentrated into jets; when bottom topographic obstacles radiate jets, and when frontogenesis leads to shallow jet formation.