Scholars@Duke
M. Susan Lozier

M. Susan Lozier

Ronie-Richele Garcia-Johnson Emerita Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences
Earth and Climate Sciences
mslozier@duke.edu
Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708-0227
Environmental Hall, Room 5119, 9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

When Simplification Leads to Ambiguity: A Look at Two Ocean Metrics for the Subpolar North Atlantic

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · February 16, 2025 The AMOC FINGERPRINT and GYRE INDEX are two widely used metrics by the oceanographic community to assess whether northward ocean heat transport, and consequently temperature variability in the subpolar North Atlantic, is primarily governed by the Atlantic ... Full text Cite

Water Mass Transformation and Its Relationship With the Overturning Circulation in the Eastern Subpolar North Atlantic

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · December 1, 2024 A recent study using the first 21 months of the OSNAP time series revealed that the export of dense waters in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic―as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC)―can be almost wholly attributed to surface-fo ... Full text Cite

Competition Between Advected and Local Variability Determines Coherent Propagation of Labrador Sea Water Along the DWBC

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · December 1, 2024 The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) is a major conduit for the equatorward export of dense waters formed in the subpolar North Atlantic and Nordic Seas that constitute the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here, we investi ... Full text Cite

Observation-Based Estimates of Water Mass Transformation and Formation in the Labrador Sea

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · July 1, 2024 The water mass produced during wintertime convection in the Labrador Sea [i.e., the Labrador Sea Water (LSW)] is characterized by distinct thermohaline properties. It has been shown to exert a critical impact on the property and circulation fields of the N ... Full text Cite

Seasonality of the Meridional Overturning Circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic

Journal Article Communications Earth and Environment · December 1, 2023 Understanding the variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is essential for better predictions of our changing climate. Here we present an updated time series (August 2014 to June 2020) from the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlan ... Full text Cite

Overturning in the subpolar North Atlantic: a review.

Journal Article Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · December 2023 The Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) was initiated in the spring of 2010 through a collaborative effort involving the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. A key feature of OSNAP is a trans-basin observing system deplo ... Full text Cite

Buoyancy forcing and the subpolar Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

Journal Article Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · December 2023 The North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and its variability are examined in terms of the overturning in density space and diapycnal water mass transformation. The magnitude of the mean overturning is similar to the surface water mass transfor ... Full text Cite

Propagation and Transformation of Upper North Atlantic Deep Water From the Subpolar Gyre to 26.5°N

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · August 1, 2023 Because new observations have revealed that the Labrador Sea is not the primary source for waters in the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) during the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Programme (OSNAP) period, it ... Full text Cite

Deep ocean circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic observed by acoustically-tracked floats

Journal Article Progress in Oceanography · February 1, 2023 The deep circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic determines the spread and mixing of high latitude climate signals to lower latitudes. However, our current understanding of the subpolar deep circulation has been limited due to relatively sparse observat ... Full text Cite

Historical Reconstruction of Subpolar North Atlantic Overturning and Its Relationship to Density

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · June 1, 2022 The connections between the overturning of the subpolar North Atlantic and regional density changes are assessed on interannual and decadal timescales using historical, data-based reconstructions of the overturning over the last 60 years and forward model ... Full text Cite

Century-long cooling trend in subpolar North Atlantic forced by atmosphere: an alternative explanation

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · May 1, 2022 A well-known exception to rising sea surface temperatures (SST) across the globe is the subpolar North Atlantic, where SST has been declining at a rate of 0.39 (± 0.23) K century−1 during the 1900–2017 period. This cold blob has been hypothesized to result ... Full text Cite

Surface Pathways Connecting the South and North Atlantic Oceans

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 16, 2022 The North Brazil Current (NBC) is considered a bottleneck in the South Atlantic, responsible for carrying upper-ocean waters into the North Atlantic. This work explores the surface pathways connecting the NBC and 26°N in the North Atlantic. To identify sai ... Full text Cite

Role of air-sea fluxes and ocean surface density in the production of deep waters in the eastern subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic

Journal Article Ocean Science · October 5, 2021 Wintertime convection in the North Atlantic Ocean is a key component of the global climate as it produces dense waters at high latitudes that flow equatorward as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Recent work has highlighted th ... Full text Cite

Linking Southern Ocean Mixed-Layer Dynamics to Net Community Production on Various Timescales

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · October 1, 2021 Mixed-layer dynamics exert a first order control on nutrient and light availability for phytoplankton. In this study, we examine the influence of mixed-layer dynamics on net community production (NCP) in the Southern Ocean on intra-seasonal, seasonal, inte ... Full text Cite

Observation-based estimates of heat and freshwater exchanges from the subtropical North Atlantic to the Arctic

Journal Article Progress in Oceanography · September 1, 2021 Continuous measurements from the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) array yield the first estimates of trans-basin heat and salinity transports in the subpolar latitudes. For the period from August 2014 to May 2018, there is a polew ... Full text Cite

Distinct sources of interannual subtropical and subpolar Atlantic overturning variability

Journal Article Nature Geoscience · July 1, 2021 The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is pivotal for regional and global climate due to its key role in the uptake and redistribution of heat and carbon. Establishing the causes of historical variability in AMOC strength on different times ... Full text Cite

Subpolar North Atlantic western boundary density anomalies and the Meridional Overturning Circulation.

Journal Article Nature communications · May 2021 Changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which have the potential to drive societally-important climate impacts, have traditionally been linked to the strength of deep water formation in the subpolar North Atlantic. Yet there is neither ... Full text Cite

Variability and Trends of the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2021 Previous studies have suggested that the South Atlantic subtropical gyre has been expanding, shifting poleward, and intensifying. We investigate these possibilities from an observational standpoint by analyzing the seasonal and interannual variability, and ... Full text Cite

Atlantic Deep Water Formation Occurs Primarily in the Iceland Basin and Irminger Sea by Local Buoyancy Forcing

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · November 28, 2020 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key mechanism in the climate system, delivers warm and salty waters from the subtropical gyre to the subpolar gyre and Nordic Seas, where they are transformed into denser waters flowing southward in ... Full text Cite

Reconciling the Relationship Between the AMOC and Labrador Sea in OSNAP Observations and Climate Models

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · September 28, 2020 The AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) is a key driver of climate variability. Our understanding, based largely on climate models, is that the Labrador Sea has an important role in shaping the evolution of the AMOC. However, a recent high-p ... Full text Cite

Latitudinal Structure of the Meridional Overturning Circulation Variability on Interannual to Decadal Time Scales in the North Atlantic Ocean

Journal Article Journal of Climate · May 1, 2020 The latitudinal structure of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variability in the North Atlantic is investigated using numerical results from three ocean circulation simulations over the past four to five decades. We show that AMOC var ... Full text Cite

An investigation of the ocean’s role in Atlantic multidecadal variability

Journal Article Journal of Climate · April 15, 2020 A mechanistic understanding of the Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) is highly desirable since it will considerably aid regional and global climate predictions. Although ocean dynamics have long been invoked to explain the AMV, recent studies have ca ... Full text Cite

Density-compensated overturning in the Labrador Sea

Journal Article Nature Geoscience · February 1, 2020 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a key constituent of the climate system, is projected to slow down in the twenty-first century due to a weakening of the Labrador Sea convection, itself a response to greenhouse gas warming and/or enhanced f ... Full text Cite

The Surface Pathways of the South Atlantic: Revisiting the Cold and Warm Water Routes Using Observational Data

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · October 1, 2019 The relative contributions of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation upper limb source waters in the South Atlantic (SA) remain largely unresolved. We contribute to a resolution by using observational data to explore water mass pathways feeding in ... Full text Cite

Predictability of North Atlantic Sea surface temperature and upper-ocean heat content

Journal Article Journal of Climate · May 1, 2019 Understanding the extent to which Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are predictable is important due to the strong climate impacts of Atlantic SST on Atlantic hurricanes and temperature and precipitation over adjacent landmasses. However, models dif ... Full text Cite

A sea change in our view of overturning in the subpolar North Atlantic.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · February 2019 To provide an observational basis for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections of a slowing Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the 21st century, the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) observing sys ... Full text Cite

How Is Meridional Coherence Maintained in the Lower Limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation?

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 16, 2019 Despite a strong focus on latitudinal continuity of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) variability, transport continuity in different layers that constitute the AMOC lower limb has received considerably less attention. In this study, we ... Full text Cite

Meridional overturning circulation and the associated heat and freshwater transports observed by the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) Array from 2014 to 2016

Dataset · January 15, 2019 An international effort, Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), is a partnership among oceanographers from the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and China whose goal is to measure and understand what drives the Atlantic Meridion ... Full text Cite

Atlantic meridional overturning circulation: Observed transport and variability

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 1, 2019 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) extends from the Southern Ocean to the northern North Atlantic, transporting heat northwards throughout the South and North Atlantic, and sinking carbon and nutrients into the deep ocean. Climate model ... Full text Cite

Local and downstream relationships between labrador sea water volume and North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability

Journal Article Journal of Climate · January 1, 2019 While it has generally been understood that the production of Labrador Sea Water (LSW) impacts the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC), this relationship has not been explored extensively or validated against observations. To explore this rel ... Full text Cite

Examining the Origins of Ocean Heat Content Variability in the Eastern North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · October 28, 2018 We analyze sources of ocean heat content (OHC) variability in the eastern North Atlantic subpolar gyre from both Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives within two ocean simulations from 1990 to 2015. Heat budgets reveal that while the OHC seasonal cycle is d ... Full text Cite

On the linkage between Labrador Sea Water volume and overturning circulation in the Labrador Sea: A case study on proxies

Journal Article Journal of Climate · July 1, 2018 Although proxies have generally been used to study deep ocean convection and overturning circulation in the Labrador Sea, their efficacy has not been explicitly evaluated because observations that directly measure those variables are scarce. In this study, ... Full text Cite

Assessing variability in the size and strength of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · August 1, 2017 Recent studies on the size and strength of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) offer contrasting assessments of the gyre's temporal variability: studies that use empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses of satellite sea-surface height (SSH) report a ... Full text Cite

Calculating the meridional volume, heat, and freshwater transports from an observing system in the subpolar North Atlantic: Observing system simulation experiment

Journal Article Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology · July 1, 2017 A transbasin monitoring array from Labrador to Scotland was deployed in the summer of 2014 as part of the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP). The aim of the observing system is to provide a multiyear continuous measure of the Atlant ... Full text Cite

Overturning in the Subpolar north Atlantic program: A new international ocean observing system

Journal Article Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · April 1, 2017 A new ocean observing system has been launched in the North Atlantic in order to understand the linkage between the meridional overturning circulation and deep-water formation. ... Full text Cite

The new world of oceanography

Journal Article Oceanography · December 1, 2016 Full text Cite

Influence of ocean circulation changes on the inter-annual variability of American eel larval dispersal

Journal Article Limnology and Oceanography · September 1, 2016 American eel (Anguilla rostrata) complete their life cycle by migrating from the east coast of North America to Sargasso Sea, where they spawn planktonic eggs and dye. Larvae that develop from eggs need to return to North American coastal waters within the ... Full text Cite

Breaking the linkage between labrador sea water production and its advective export to the subtropical gyre

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · July 1, 2016 Deep water formation in the northern North Atlantic has been of long-standing interest because the resultant water masses, along with those that flow over the Greenland-Scotland Ridge, constitute the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circul ... Full text Cite

Oceanographers at the beach

Journal Article Oceanography · June 1, 2016 Full text Cite

No inter-gyre pathway for sea-surface temperature anomalies in the North Atlantic.

Journal Article Nature communications · April 2016 Recent Lagrangian analyses of surface drifters have questioned the existence of a surface current connecting the Gulf Stream (GS) to the subpolar gyre (SPG) and have cast doubt on the mechanism underlying an apparent pathway for sea-surface temperature (SS ... Full text Cite

The necessity of cloud feedback for a basin-scale Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · 2016 The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), characterized by basin-scale multidecadal variability in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), has traditionally been interpreted as the surface signature of variability in oceanic heat convergence (OH ... Full text Cite

Quantifying the impact of submesoscale processes on the spring phytoplankton bloom in a turbulent upper ocean using a Lagrangian approach

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 1, 2016 The spring phytoplankton bloom in the subpolar North Atlantic and the mechanisms controlling its evolution and onset have important consequences for marine ecosystems and carbon cycling. Submesoscale mixed layer eddies (MLEs) play a role in the onset of th ... Full text Cite

Ocean versus atmosphere control on western European wintertime temperature variability

Journal Article Climate Dynamics · December 1, 2015 Using a novel Lagrangian approach, we assess the relative roles of the atmosphere and ocean in setting interannual variability in western European wintertime temperatures. We compute sensible and latent heat fluxes along atmospheric particle trajectories b ... Full text Cite

A tribute to John A. Knauss (1925–2015)

Journal Article Oceanography · December 1, 2015 Full text Cite

Sharks and miami lawyers

Journal Article Oceanography · September 1, 2015 Full text Cite

The impact of advection on stratification and chlorophyll variability in the equatorial Pacific

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · June 16, 2015 Previously reported global-scale correlations between interannual variability in upper ocean stratification and chlorophyll a (a proxy for phytoplankton biomass) have been shown to be driven by strong associations between the two properties in the central ... Full text Cite

Overturning assumptions past, present, and future concerns about the ocean’s circulation

Journal Article Oceanography · June 1, 2015 In 1800, Count Rumford ascertained the ocean’s meridional overturning circulation from a single profile of ocean temperature constructed with the use of a rope, a wooden bucket, and a rudimentary thermometer. Over two centuries later, arrays of gliders, fl ... Full text Cite

What drives seasonal change in oligotrophic area in the subtropical North Atlantic?

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · June 1, 2015 The oligotrophic regions of the subtropical gyres cover a significant portion of the global ocean, and exhibit considerable but poorly understood intraseasonal, interannual, and longer-term variations in spatial extent. Here using historical observations o ... Full text Cite

Oceanographers as masons

Journal Article Oceanography · June 1, 2015 Full text Cite

Characterizing upper-ocean mixing and its effect on the spring phytoplankton bloom with in situ data

Journal Article ICES Journal of Marine Science · May 23, 2015 Since publication, the Sverdrup hypothesis, that phytoplankton are uniformly distributed within the ocean mixed layer and bloom once the ocean warms and stratifies in spring, has been the conventional explanation of subpolar phytoplankton spring bloom init ... Full text Cite

Ensuring a healthy funding environment in ocean sciences

Journal Article Oceanography · March 1, 2015 Full text Cite

Physical controls of variability in north Atlantic phytoplankton communities

Journal Article Limnology and Oceanography · January 1, 2015 The structure of marine phytoplankton communities in the North Atlantic Ocean varies considerably on seasonal, interannual, and longer timescales in response to environmental change. However, the causes of ecological variability on interannual and longer t ... Full text Cite

Year-to-year reoutcropping of eighteen degree water in an eddy-resolving ocean simulation

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2015 Winter outcropping of the Eighteen Degree Water (EDW) and its subsequent dispersion are studied using a 1/12 ° eddy-resolving simulation of the Family of Linked Atlantic Modeling Experiments (FLAME). Outcropped EDW columns in the model simulations are dete ... Full text Cite

Mechanisms of heat content and thermocline change in the subtropical and subpolar North Atlantic

Journal Article Journal of Climate · January 1, 2015 In the North Atlantic, there are pronounced gyre-scale changes in ocean heat content on interannual-to-decadal time scales, which are associated with changes in both sea surface temperature and thermocline thickness; the subtropics are often warm with a th ... Full text Cite

The impact of mpowir a decade of investing in mentoring women in physical oceanography

Journal Article Oceanography · December 1, 2014 MPOWIR (Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention) is a US communityinitiated and community-led mentoring program aimed at improving the retention of women physical oceanographers in academic and/or research positions. This article descri ... Full text Cite

Dispersal pathways of American eel larvae from the Sargasso Sea

Journal Article Limnology and Oceanography · September 2014 At the end of their life cycle, American eel (Anguilla rostrata) migrate to the Sargasso Sea from freshwater habitats along the east coast of North America in order to spawn planktonic eggs. The eggs develop into larvae t ... Full text Cite

Changes in dominant mixing length scales as a driver of subpolar phytoplankton bloom initiation in the North Atlantic

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · May 16, 2014 Subpolar phytoplankton blooms have traditionally been attributed to changes in the depth of the ocean's seasonal thermocline: as the upper ocean warms and stratifies in the spring, phytoplankton reside within increasingly shallow depths where they experien ... Full text Cite

Steering the global partnership for oceans

Journal Article Marine Resource Economics · May 2, 2014 The Global Partnership for Oceans (GPO) is an alliance of governments, private firms, international organizations, and civil society groups that aims to promote ocean health while contributing to human wellbeing. A Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) was commissioned ... Full text Open Access Cite

Decadal evolution of ocean thermal anomalies in the north Atlantic: The effects of ekman, overturning, and horizontal transport

Journal Article Journal of Climate · January 1, 2014 Basin-scale thermal anomalies in the North Atlantic, extending to depths of 1-2km, are more pronounced than the background warming over the last 60 years.Adynamical analysis based on reanalyses of historical data from 1965 to 2000 suggests that these therm ... Full text Cite

The fate of North Atlantic subtropical mode water in the FLAME model

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2014 North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water, also known as Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), has the potential to store heat anomalies through its seasonal cycle: the water mass is in contact with the atmosphere in winter, isolated from the surface for the rest of th ... Full text Cite

Tracing the pathways of the upper limb of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 1, 2014 The warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of the eastern subpolar gyre (ESG) in the North Atlantic have been widely linked to the climate and climate variability of Great Britain and northwestern Europe. The source of the ESG waters, and its heat, has long ... Full text Cite

Examining the global record of interannual variability in stratification and marine productivity in the low-latitude and mid-latitude ocean

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · June 1, 2013 Strengthened stratification of the upper ocean, associated with anthropogenic or climate-driven warming, is generally expected to inhibit marine primary productivity in light-replete, nutrient-limited environments, essentially, in the low and middle latitu ... Full text Cite

A comparison of methods to determine phytoplankton bloom initiation

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · May 1, 2013 Phytoplankton bloom phenology has important consequences for marine ecosystems and fisheries. Recent studies have used remotely sensed ocean color data to calculate metrics associated with the phenological cycle, such as the phytoplankton bloom initiation ... Full text Cite

Rethinking the Gulf stream.

Journal Article Scientific American · February 2013 Full text Cite

Simulated pathways of the overflow waters in the North Atlantic: Subpolar to subtropical export

Journal Article Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography · January 1, 2013 Motivated by previous observational and modeling studies that demonstrate interior pathways for the export of Labrador Sea Water (LSW) into the subtropical North Atlantic, we analyze whether the deeper, denser overflow water (OW) pathways are similarly dis ... Full text Cite

Reconciling tracer and float observations of the export pathways of Labrador Sea Water

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · December 28, 2012 For more than fifty years, it has been generally accepted by oceanographers that the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) is the principal conduit of recently-convected Labrador Sea Water (LSW) exported from the high-latitude North Atlantic to the equator. ... Full text Cite

Past, present, and future changes in the atlantic meridional overturning circulation

Journal Article Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · November 1, 2012 The key conclusions from the above are as follows: the importance of the AMOC for the climate is paramount; there is a pressing need for sustained observations of the AMOC and associated heat transport; and the potential predictability of the AMOC and ther ... Full text Cite

Overturning in the North Atlantic.

Journal Article Annual review of marine science · January 2012 The global overturning of ocean waters involves the equatorward transport of cold, deep waters and the poleward transport of warm, near-surface waters. Such movement creates a net poleward transport of heat that, in partnership with the atmosphere, establi ... Full text Cite

Unraveling dynamical controls on the North Pacific carbon sink

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2012 A broad swath across the North Pacific basin uptakes a disproportionately large amount of atmospheric CO2 every year, with the region of most intense uptake located in the North Pacific transition zone, from ∼30N to 40N-45N. Though a net carbon sink on a m ... Full text Cite

Mid-depth Lagrangian pathways in the North Atlantic and their impact on the salinity of the eastern subpolar gyre

Journal Article Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers · December 1, 2011 The role of Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) in creating subsurface salinity anomalies within the Rockall Trough, a gateway to high latitude areas of deep convection, has been examined closely in recent years. Eulerian investigations of high latitude pro ... Full text Cite

The supply of excess phosphate across the Gulf Stream and the maintenance of subtropical nitrogen fixation

Journal Article Global Biogeochemical Cycles · November 11, 2011 The subtropical North Atlantic is considered a hot spot for biological nitrogen fixation, with estimated rates between 1 and 20 × 10 11 mol nitrogen fixed annually. However, the region's nutrient reservoir beneath the euphotic zone is so enriched in nitrat ... Full text Cite

Deciphering the pathways for the deep limb of the Meridional Overturning Circulation

Journal Article Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography · September 1, 2011 For the past 50 years it has been assumed that the principal pathway for the deep limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC). However, recent observations of Lagrangian floats have shown that ... Full text Cite

Export of Labrador Sea Water from the subpolar North Atlantic: A Lagrangian perspective

Journal Article Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography · September 1, 2011 Results from 59 acoustically tracked RAFOS floats obtained during 2003-2008 are analyzed here to study the spreading pathways of Labrador Sea Water (LSW) from the subpolar to subtropical North Atlantic. An earlier paper based on a subset of these float dat ... Full text Cite

Projecting uncertainty onto marine megafauna trajectories

Journal Article Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers · September 1, 2011 In this study, a method is proposed for estimating the uncertainty of a Lagrangian pathway calculated from an undersampled ocean surface velocity field. The primary motivation and application for this method is the differentiation between active and passiv ... Full text Cite

Ocean Circulation and its Role in Climate

Journal Article Scientific American · 2011 Cite

On the variability of the mediterranean outflow water in the North Atlantic from 1948 to 2006

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2011 Recent work has shown that variability in the properties and/or transport of Mediterranean Seawaters spilling across the Strait of Gibraltar into the North Atlantic have had little impact on the variability of Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) in the that ... Full text Cite

Subtropical to subpolar pathways in the North Atlantic: Deductions from Lagrangian trajectories

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2011 Surface waters of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current are thought to replenish deep water formation sites at high latitudes with warm and salty subtropical waters, thereby closing the large-scale meridional overturning circulation. In recent studies ... Full text Cite

Near-surface transport pathways in the North Atlantic Ocean: Looking for throughput from the subtropical to the subpolar gyre

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2011 Motivated by discrepancies between Eulerian transport estimates and the behavior of Lagrangian surface drifters, near-surface transport pathways and processes in the North Atlantic are studied using a combination of data, altimetric surface heights, statis ... Full text Cite

Opposing decadal changes for the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

Journal Article Nature Geoscience · October 1, 2010 The hydrographic properties of the North Atlantic Ocean changed significantly from 1950 to 2000: the subtropics warmed and became more saline, whereas the subpolar ocean cooled and freshened. These changes directly affect the storage of heat and fresh wate ... Full text Cite

Mentoring women in physical oceanography

Journal Article Eos · September 7, 2010 MPOWIR Pattullo Conference; Charleston, South Carolina, 23-26 May 2010; Initiated in 2004, Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention (MPOWIR) is a community-initiated and community-led program aimed at providing mentoring to junior women ... Full text Cite

Deconstructing the conveyor belt.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · June 2010 For the past several decades, oceanographers have embraced the dominant paradigm that the ocean's meridional overturning circulation operates like a conveyor belt, transporting cold waters equatorward at depth and warm waters poleward at the surface. Withi ... Full text Cite

Physical controls on the seasonal migration of the North Pacific transition zone chlorophyll front

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2010 The large seasonal migration of the transition zone chlorophyll front (TZCF) is of interest because a number of marine fauna, both commercial and endangered, appear to track it. Herein we examine the physical dynamics driving this seasonal migration of the ... Full text Open Access Cite

Local stratification control of marine productivity in the subtropical North Pacific

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · January 1, 2010 Strengthened stratification of the upper ocean due to global warming is generally expected to inhibit marine primary productivity in the subtropics, based on the supposition that increased water column stability will decrease vertical mixing and consequent ... Full text Open Access Cite

The climode field campaign observing the cycle of convection and restratification over the gulf stream

Journal Article Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · November 26, 2009 A field experiment that provides a wintertime atmospheric and oceanic convection over the Gulf Stream, where the ocean gives up its heat to the atmosphere during intense storms is discussed. Key aspects of the fluid dynamics associated with mode water form ... Full text Cite

On the source of Mediterranean Overflow Water property changes

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · October 13, 2009 A recent study of the eastern North Atlantic detailed significant increases in the temperature and salinity of the Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) from 1950 to 2000. To examine the degree to which the source waters, which spill over the sill at the Stra ... Full text Cite

Interior pathways of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

Journal Article Nature · May 2009 To understand how our global climate will change in response to natural and anthropogenic forcing, it is essential to determine how quickly and by what pathways climate change signals are transported throughout the global ocean, a vast reservoir for heat a ... Full text Cite

Overturning assumptions

Journal Article Nature Geoscience · January 1, 2009 Full text Cite

A Successful First Pattullo Conference

Journal Article Oceanography · January 1, 2009 Full text Cite

On the temporally varying northward penetration of mediterranean overflow water and eastward penetration of Labrador sea water

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · September 1, 2008 Historical hydrographic data in the eastern North Atlantic are used to suggest a connection between the northward penetration of Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) and the location of the subpolar front, the latter of which is shown to vary with the North ... Full text Cite

On the source of Gulf Stream nutrients

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · June 8, 2008 Along density surfaces, nutrient concentrations in the Gulf Stream are elevated relative to concentrations to either side of the current. We assess the source of these elevated nutrient concentrations in the western boundary current using historical hydrog ... Full text Cite

How does Labrador sea water enter the deep western boundary current?

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · May 1, 2008 Labrador Sea Water (LSW), a dense water mass formed by convection in the subpolar North Atlantic, is an important constituent of the meridional overturning circulation. Understanding how the water mass enters the deep western boundary current (DWBC), one o ... Full text Cite

The spatial pattern and mechanisms of heat-content change in the North Atlantic.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · February 2008 The total heat gained by the North Atlantic Ocean over the past 50 years is equivalent to a basinwide increase in the flux of heat across the ocean surface of 0.4 +/- 0.05 watts per square meter. We show, however, that this basin has not warmed uniformly: ... Full text Cite

Integrated impact of tropical cyclones on sea surface chlorophyll in the North Atlantic

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 16, 2008 Past studies have shown that surface chlorophyll-a concentrations increase in the wake of hurricanes. Given the reported increase in the intensity of North Atlantic hurricanes in recent years, increasing chlorophyll-a concentrations, perhaps an indication ... Full text Cite

On the source of Gulf Stream nutrients

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research · 2008 Link to item Cite

Subjective likelihood for the assessment of trends in the ocean's mixed-layer depth

Journal Article Journal of the American Statistical Association · September 1, 2007 This article describes a Bayesian statistical analysis of long-term changes in the depth of the ocean's mixed layer. The data are thermal profiles recorded by ships. For these data, there is no good sampling model and thus no obvious likelihood function. O ... Full text Cite

Rejoinder

Journal Article Journal of the American Statistical Association · September 1, 2007 Full text Cite

The effect of advection on the nutrient reservoir in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre.

Journal Article Nature · September 2005 Though critically important in sustaining the ocean's biological pump, the cycling of nutrients in the subtropical gyres is poorly understood. The supply of nutrients to the sunlit surface layer of the ocean has traditionally been attributed solely to vert ... Full text Cite

The influence of topography on the stability of shelfbreak fronts

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · June 1, 2005 In an attempt to understand the degree to which the stability of a shelfbreak front, characterized by continuous horizontal and vertical shear, is affected by topography, a linear stability analysis was conducted for a range of frontal jets and bottom-slop ... Full text Cite

Slope water, gulf stream, and seasonal influences on southern Mid-Atlantic Bight circulation during the fall-winter transition

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · February 8, 2005 Observations from autumn 2000 near the shelfbreak front in the Middle Atlantic Bight are used to describe the transition from stratified summer conditions to well-mixed winter conditions over the shelf. During the observational period, the front differed d ... Full text Cite

On the warming and salinification of the Mediterranean outflow waters in the North Atlantic

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 16, 2004 Based on hydrographic data collected since 1955, Mediterranean outflow waters present in the eastern North Atlantic show a density compensated increase in both temperature and salinity. With an increase in temperature of 0.101 ± 0.024°C/decade and an incre ... Full text Cite

On the warming of the Mediterranean outflow waters

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · 2004 Cite

Instability of a shelfbreak front

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2002 In an attempt to understand whether local instabilities can account for the observed frontal variability in the Middle Atlantic Bight, a linear stability analysis was conducted for a wide range of background density and velocity fields. Three-dimensional p ... Full text Cite

Evaluation of North Atlantic property field simulations at 1/6*

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · 2001 Cite

Evaluation of North Atlantic property field simulations at 1/6

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2001 One way to measure the skill of an ocean general circulation model is to evaluate its ability to simulate observed property distributions. Pressure, temperature, and salinity distributions generated by a 1/6° Atlantic Ocean general circulation model are co ... Full text Cite

Cross-frontal exchange in the middle atlantic bight as evidenced by surface drifters

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 2001 Surface drifters at 10 and 40 m are analyzed to assess cross-frontal exchange characteristics within the Middle Atlantic Bight. This Lagrangian analysis shows a shelfbreak jet characterized by strong and ubiquitous meandering. The drifters collectively dem ... Full text Cite

A Markov random field spatio-temporal analysis of ocean temperature

Journal Article Environmental and Ecological Statistics · December 1, 1999 The National Oceanic Data Center (NODC) contains historical records from approximately 144,000 hydrographic stations in the North Atlantic. This data has been used by oceanographers to construct maps of point estimates of pressure, temperature, salinity an ... Full text Cite

Signatures of the Mediterranean outflow from a North Atlantic climatology 2. Diagnostic velocity fields

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · November 15, 1999 Part 1 of this study is a descriptive analysis of the spreading of Mediterranean Water based on high-resolution maps of salinity and density in the eastern basin. In this second part of our study, velocity fields for two representative isopycnal surfaces o ... Full text Cite

Signatures of the Mediterranean outflow from a North Atlantic climatology 1. Salinity and density fields

Journal Article Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · November 15, 1999 Using historical data from the National Oceanic Data Center, the climatology of the eastern North Atlantic basin has been investigated for the purpose of detailing the Mediterranean outflow water in terms of its salinity, density, and flow patterns. Part 1 ... Full text Cite

The impact of mid-depth recirculations on the distribution of tracers in the North Atlantic

Journal Article Geophysical Research Letters · January 15, 1999 An interesting feature of the waters carried equatorward by the Deep Western Boundary Current in the North Atlantic is their sharp vertical differentiation in tracer concentration and, accordingly, tracer age. In this work I demonstrate that the structure ... Full text Cite

Evidence for large-scale eddy-driven gyres in the North Atlantic

Journal Article Science · July 18, 1997 Analysis of a recent climatological database for the North Atlantic has detailed an extensive large-scale recirculation system in the intermediate waters of the North Atlantic basin. The pressure fields that define this recirculation, coupled with the pote ... Full text Cite

Exchange geometry revealed by float trajectories in the Gulf Stream

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 1997 In an effort to understand the extent to which Lagrangian pathways in the Gulf Stream indicate fluid exchange between the stream and its surroundings, trajectories of RAFOS floats are viewed in a frame of reference moving with the dominant zonal phase spee ... Full text Cite

The influence of propagating waves on cross-stream excursions

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 1996 A kinematic model is developed to examine the relationship between meander propagation and Lagrangian pressure change within a meandering jet. Basically, the model equates changes in pressure along the path of a water parcel with the cross-stream motion of ... Full text Cite

Parcel Trajectories in Quasigeostrophic Jets: Neutral Modes

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · June 1995 Full text Cite

The climatology of the North Atlantic

Journal Article Progress in Oceanography · January 1, 1995 Data from approximately 144,000 hydrographic stations in the North Atlantic have been retrieved from the national Oceanic Data Centre and analysed to produce maps of mean pressure, temperature, salinity and oxygen on selected potential density surfaces for ... Full text Cite

An estimate of the climatological mean circulation in the western North Atlantic

Journal Article Journal of Marine Research · January 1, 1995 Geostrophic velocities were calculated using a recently assembled hydrographic database comprised of NODC station data (1904-1990). The property fields generated from this database are smoothed on isopycnal surfaces and have a nominal resolution of one deg ... Full text Cite

A closer look at particle exchange in the Gulf Stream

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 1994 The trajectories of 95 isopycnal floats deployed in the Gulf Stream in the last decade have shown that a substantial amount of particle exchange takes place between the Gulf Stream and the surrounding fluid at the level of the main thermocline. The locatio ... Full text Cite

Anomalous anomalies in averaged hydrographic data

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · January 1, 1994 A comparison of a recently assembled hydrographic database for the North Atlantic with the Levitus atlas shows striking differences in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current. On isopycnal surfaces in the main thermocline, isolated p ... Full text Cite

Particle Exchange in an Unstable Jet

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · December 1992 Full text Cite

Potential vorticity sources and sinks in a quasi-geostrophic ocean: beyond western boundary currents

Journal Article J. PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY · January 1, 1990 Potential vorticity dynamics for a quasi-geostropic eddy resolving general circulation model (EGCM) were studied in order to determine the effects of mesoscale variability on the potential vorticity distribution of a wind-driven ocean. The study used both ... Full text Cite

Potential Vorticity Dynamics of Boundary Currents in a Quasi-geostrophic Ocean

Journal Article Journal of Physical Oceanography · September 1989 Full text Open Access Cite