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Evaluating SODA for Indo-Pacific Ocean decadal climate variability studies
Citation
Vargas Hernandez, J and Wijffels, S and Meyers, G and Holbrook, NJ, Evaluating SODA for Indo-Pacific Ocean decadal climate variability studies, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 119, (11) pp. 7854-7868. ISSN 2169-9275 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ 2014JC010175
Abstract
Estimates of changes in upper ocean temperature, heat content, and sea level are dependent
on the coverage of subsurface observations in space and time. Historically, these data are sparse, which has
limited our understanding of ocean climate variability and change mechanisms. Ocean state estimates,
which effectively represent a model synthesis and integration of the available observations, including internal
observations in the ocean and surface forcing, help to address the inhomogeneity of sparse observations
in space and time. Here we evaluate the representativeness of ocean state estimates from the Simple
Ocean Data Assimilation Version 2.2.4 (SODA) data for studying Indo-Pacific Ocean decadal temperature
and sea level variability over the period 1950–2007. The SODA data are evaluated against independent sea
level anomalies from long-record tide gauges at Midway Island and Fremantle, reconstructed sea surface
height anomalies, and sea surface height anomalies from TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimeter observations
at the decadal time scale. This study demonstrates that SODA captures the characteristic Interdecadal
Pacific Oscillation (IPO) over the upper 200 m, and accurately represents these decadal changes against the
independent observations. The SODA-product shows a meridional asymmetry of patterns that connect the
western tropical Pacific and the Indian Ocean, apparently in relation to IPO changes. Regional sea level at
the Midway Island and Fremantle tide gauges confirm this decadal connection and the relationship with
the IPO. We concluded that SODA is potentially a useful tool to examine ocean decadal climate variability
across the Indo-Pacific Ocean.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Indo-Pacific Ocean, Simple Ocean Data Assimilation, SODA, decadal climate variability; sea level, heat content, ocean temperature |
Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
Research Group: | Oceanography |
Research Field: | Physical oceanography |
Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
Objective Field: | Climate variability (excl. social impacts) |
UTAS Author: | Vargas Hernandez, J (Mr Jose Vargas Hernandez) |
UTAS Author: | Meyers, G (Professor Gary Meyers) |
UTAS Author: | Holbrook, NJ (Professor Neil Holbrook) |
ID Code: | 98336 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 6 |
Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
Deposited On: | 2015-02-11 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-30 |
Downloads: | 106 View Download Statistics |
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