Identification

Title

Interpretation of tropical thermocline cooling in the Indian and Pacific oceans during recent decades

Abstract

A warming trend has been detected in the world's oceans in recent decades. The basin-averaged warming, however, shows a complex vertical structure in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Warming in the upper ocean-with maxima near the surface- accompanies a strong cooling in the upper thermocline. Analysis of observed data and model solutions from this study reveals that the complex structure is confined mainly to the tropics. While increased greenhouse gases act to warm up the upper ocean by increasing downward surface heat fluxes, anomalous winds in the tropics cause upward Ekman pumping velocity and shoal the thermocline, resulting in an upper-thermocline cooling. This cooling process is well demonstrated by a simple model based on the ventilated thermocline theory. The study has important implications for climate change and fisheries.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7474b5p

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2006-12-14T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact