Unveiling the Ocean's Engine: The Role of Ocean Dynamics in Climate Variability and Change
- Submission status
- Open
- Submission deadline
The ocean, Earth's vast and enigmatic powerhouse, holds the key to understanding and predicting the ever-shifting tides of our climate. We are calling all oceanographers and climate researchers to join us in this Collection dedicated to unveiling the secrets of ocean dynamics!
We are particularly interested in the following research topics:
- Groundbreaking studies address the ocean's role in climate change and global heat distribution, by quantifying the heat uptake and its impacts on global warming trends, due to the fact that the ocean acts as a giant heat sink, absorbing vast amounts of atmospheric energy.
- Critical analyses explore the intricate interaction between ocean dynamics and atmospheric processes to improve the accuracy of climate prediction models. This interplay is central to phenomena like El Niño and La Niña, which has a profound influence on weather patterns worldwide. Studies investigating mechanisms for interannual to multidecadal variability in the ocean basins are particularly welcome.
- Transbasin interactions of Ocean-Atmosphere coupled variability modes are crucial to understand shifts in the hydrological cycle on interannual to multidecadal timescales. Examples are the links between ENSO and Atlantic Nino as well as Indian Ocean Dipole on interannual timescales. On decadal to multidecadal timescales the interactions between Atlantic and Pacific decadal to multidecadal variability modes are extremely relevant also to shape climate change patterns.
- Changes of tropical Sea Surface Temperature (SST) gradient are of prime importance to the long-term trends in the hydrological cycle. For instance, ocean reconstructions for the last century suggest an increase of the zonal SST gradient in the tropical Pacific, which is strictly linked to changes in the Walker Circulation. On the other hand, theoretical considerations as well as CMIP6 data imply a weakening of the tropical Pacific SST gradient in response to climate change. Contributions that address possible solutions to untangle this paradox are welcome.
- One of the most pivotal tipping points of the Earth climate is tightly associated with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). An AMOC sudden breakdown would have catastrophic implications for regional climate. Even though this event has been considered as not very likely to happen in the very near future, some recent data and model simulations argue the opposite. Progress in the assessment of how close the climate system is to an AMOC breakdown, and studies on the AMOC variability in general and its relation to Atlantic Multidecadal Variability are at the core of this Collection.
- Long-lasting marine heatwaves have vast impacts on regional ecosystems. Yet their causes are different from case to case, which entails studies investigating such mechanisms in a timely manner.
- Innovative methods for observing and modeling ocean currents, mixing, waves, and stratification to accurately manifest how the ocean will respond to a warming climate.
Editors
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Fred Kucharski, PhD
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy
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Cheng Sun, PhD
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
