Posted on 12/09/2024 4:51:32 PM PST by Red Badger
A new study reveals a 30-year acceleration of equatorial Pacific currents, driven by stronger winds, with implications for global climate and El Niño patterns. The findings, based on NOAA-supported data, may enhance climate model accuracy and ENSO predictions.
A crucial ocean layer essential to the dynamics of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
A recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans reports a marked acceleration in upper-ocean circulation within the equatorial Pacific over the last three decades.
The primary driver of this acceleration is intensified atmospheric winds, resulting in stronger and shallower ocean currents. These changes may influence regional and global climate patterns, potentially affecting the frequency and intensity of El Niño and La Niña events. The study offers a spatial perspective on these long-term trends based on observational data, extending insights by at least another decade beyond previous research.
West East Near Surface Current Trend Between 1993–2022
West-east near-surface current trend between 1993-2022. Blue colors show increased westward currents; red colors show increased eastward currents. The largest trends are observed in the central tropical Pacific Ocean (black box). Current velocity data from three equatorial moored buoys (yellow diamonds) provide a subsurface view on long-term upper-ocean current velocity trends. Credit: Graphic figure: Franz Philip Tuchen Satellite image background NOAA NESDIS The research team, led by Franz Philip Tuchen, a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School’s NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), in collaboration with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), synthesized thirty years of long-term ocean and atmosphere observations from satellites, mooring buoys, and ocean surface drifters.
By integrating the reanalysis of wind data and satellite altimetry into a high-resolution, gridded time series of near-surface ocean currents, this study presents a new and comprehensive view to date of the changes in the Pacific upper-ocean circulation.
Findings: Accelerated Currents and Potential Climate Impacts
The research findings indicate that stronger winds across the equatorial Pacific have caused a notable acceleration of westward near-surface currents by approximately 20 percent in the central equatorial Pacific. Poleward currents north and south of the equator have also accelerated, with increases of 60 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
“The equatorial thermocline—a critical ocean layer for El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dynamics—has steepened significantly,” said Tuchen. “This steepening trend could reduce ENSO amplitude in the eastern Pacific and favor more frequent central Pacific El Niño events, potentially altering regional and global climate patterns associated with ENSO.”
The researchers indicate the study offers a benchmark for climate models, which have had limited success to accurately represent Pacific circulation and sea surface temperature trends. The researchers suggest the findings could help improve the predictability of ENSO events and related weather patterns, especially for regions like the United States, which experience significant climate variability from ENSO-driven changes.
Reference:
“Strengthening of the Equatorial Pacific Upper-Ocean Circulation Over the Past Three Decades”
by Franz Philip Tuchen, Renellys C. Perez, Gregory R. Foltz, Michael J. McPhaden and Rick Lumpkin, 31 October 2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.
DOI: 10.1029/2024JC021343
Funding for this study was provided by NOAA’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) programs, including the Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array (GTMBA), the Global Drifter Program (GDP), and the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) program.
Pacific Ocean Currents Are Accelerating, and It
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Could Change Global Climate As We Know It
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Or not.........................😏
Their models overlook or ignore the impact on Hadley Cells (the prime reason we have the Trade winds) from the Stratosphere and Thermosphere by solar radiation (solar wind) due to weakening geomagnetic fields.
So-called Auroral Heating drives that energy deeper into the atmosphere altering wind patterns and speeds.
see https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/docs/2018AREPS.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349450413_Latest_Trends_of_Atmospheric_Cells_under_Global_Warming
Please note that *any* FedGov funded study, either direct grants (like given the NSF) or papers from NASA will ALWAYS have the words "Global Warming" in the opening sentence or paragraph. Always.
You get what you pay for.....
Whatever you subsidize, you get more of...............
Could change things.
Well. Now we’re scared.
You think the acceleration is bad, just wait til the deceleration starts.
A new study reveals a 30-year acceleration of equatorial Pacific currents, driven by stronger winds, with implications for global climate and El Niño patterns.
= = =
I contend that the windmills and solar panels are interferring with the normal planetary wind and weather flow, and this ‘accelleration’ is a result of that.
Humans outsmarting themselves.
Could it be also that instruments way back in the days just weren’t all that accurate?..............
A boot stamping on a human face forever would fix it.
Science says so.
O NOES ping
The planet earth naturally tilted one tenth of one degree north by northwest,
on it's axis, resulting in the acceleration of the pacific ocean currents.
IMO
We’re doomed!!!!
Hooray!!!
Oh well I think the millionaire girl at the
high school reunion is married anyways
LOL 🤣🤣🤣😆😆😆
I bet these guys don’t even m2ntion geothermal heat being added to the Pacific, much less track it. Think the heat of the water could possibly affect the air movements (wind) above the water? Think water heated at one level by geothermal processes might move to take the place of colder water?
Anyone who says the currents move only because of wind is like someone saying the wind that comes with a blue sky was generated by too many blue birds.
I remember back in the 1980s when “El Niño” was first used as a scare word by the news media.
An early winter storm hit the Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska area.
A thousand miles away, our local weather chick in the South stood out in the empty parking lot at night and said...”The question that is on everyone’s minds,(then with a look of terror on her face,)IS THIS EL NINO?”
I wanted to throw a boot at the TV.
“Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.” - Robert Heinlein...............
wasnt greenland green at one time
Yes at one time. The Vikings tried to make settlements there but they eventually left as the weather climate got too cold for crops..............
Better check with Greta on that premise.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..
Yeah, that homely little Climate Pixie really knows what she’s talking about!
For years we’ve been told the current was slowing and might stop, killing all life off. It must be getting harder to come up with new and more exciting ways to end all life on Earth.
Even the so-called Dinosaur-Killer asteroid of 65 million years ago didn’t kill everything, else all that is here now wouldn’t be.................
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