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Undersea mountains provide crucial piece in climate prediction puzzle

A mystery in the ocean near Antarctica has been solved by researchers who have long puzzled over how deep and mid-depth ocean waters are mixed.

They found that sea water mixes dramatically as it rushes over undersea mountains in Drake Passage – the channel between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic continent. Mixing of water layers in the oceans is crucial in regulating the Earth’s climate and ocean currents.

The research provides insight for climate models which until now have lacked the detailed information on ocean mixing needed to provide accurate long-term climate projections. The study was carried out by the University of Exeter, the University of East Anglia, the University of Southampton, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the British Antarctic Survey and the Scottish Association for Marine Science and is published in the journal Nature. (more…)

In last great age of warmth, CO2 at work — but hardly alone

By Guest PostApril 4, 2013Environmentactual temperature patterns, aerosol composition, alexey fedorov, central america, chris brierley, climate, climate change, climate forcing, cloud feedbacks, CO2, coast of peru, dynamic factors, earth, el nino conditions, global warmth, high latitudes, indonesia, kira lawrence, last great age, meaningful predictions, modern temperature patterns, ocean mixing, past, petra dekens, pliocene climate, pliocene warming, simulation, subtropical waters, tectonic changes, tropics, typical climate model, university college london, warming pattern, warmth, yale university, zhonghui liu

Warming patterns during Earth’s last period of prolonged global warmth differed dramatically from modern temperature patterns, according to new research by a Yale University scientist and colleagues. Cloud feedbacks, ocean mixing, or other dynamic factors must have played a greater role in Pliocene warming than commonly recognized, the scientists argue, and these must be accounted for in order to make meaningful predictions about Earth’s future climate.

In a paper published April 4 in the journal Nature, Yale climate scientist Alexey Fedorov and colleagues compile records of sea surface temperatures going back five million years, to the early Pliocene. These records reveal a world with fairly uniform warm temperatures in the whole of the Tropics prior to 4 million years ago — a significant scenario that typical climate model simulations fail to show. (more…)

Tag Archives: ocean mixing

Undersea mountains provide crucial piece in climate prediction puzzle

In last great age of warmth, CO2 at work — but hardly alone