Southern ocean carbon and heat impact on climate
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: The Southern Ocean greatly contributes to the regulation of the global climate by controlling important heat and carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean. Rates of climate change on decadal timescales are therefore impacted by oceanic processes taking place in the Southern Ocean, yet too little is known about these processes. Limitations come both from the lack of observations in this extreme environment and its inherent sensitivity to intermittent processes at scales that are not well captured in current Earth system models. The Southern Ocean Carbon and Heat Impact on Climate programme was launched to address this knowledge gap, with the overall objective to understand and quantify variability of heat and carbon budgets in the Southern Ocean through an investigation of the key physical processes controlling exchanges between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice using a combination of observational and modelling approaches. Here, we provide a brief overview of the programme, as well as a summary of some of the scientific progress achieved during its first half. Advances range from new evidence of the importance of specific processes in Southern Ocean ventilation rate (e.g. storm-induced turbulence, sea-ice meltwater fronts, wind-induced gyre circulation, dense shelf water formation and abyssal mixing) to refined descriptions of the physical changes currently ongoing in the Southern Ocean and of their link with global climate. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Heat and carbon uptake in the Southern Ocean: the state of the art and future priorities'.
Authors: The SO-CHIC consortium, J. B. Sallée, E. P. Abrahamsen, C. Allaigre, M. Auger, H. Ayres, R. Badhe, J. Boutin, J. A. Brearley, C. de Lavergne, A. M. M. ten Doeschate, E. S. Droste, M. D. du Plessis, D. Ferreira, I. S. Giddy, B. Gülk, N. Gruber, M. Hague, M. Hoppema, S. A. Josey, T. Kanzow, M. Kimmritz, M. R. Lindeman, P. J. Llanillo, N. S. Lucas, G. Madec, D. P. Marshall, A. J. S. Meijers, M. P. Meredith, M. Mohrmann, P. M. S. Monteiro, C. Mosneron Dupin, K. Naeck, A. Narayanan, A. C. Naveira Garabato, S-A. Nicholson, A. Novellino, M. Ödalen, S. Østerhus, W. Park, R. D. Patmore, E. Piedagnel, F. Roquet, H. S. Rosenthal, T. Roy, R. Saurabh, Y. Silvy, T. Spira, N. Steiger, A. F. Styles, S. Swart, L. Vogt, B. Ward, S. Zhou
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, British Antarctic Survey, University of Reading, Dalhousie University, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, University of Gothenburg, University of Cape Town, ETH Zurich, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, University of Oxford, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, ETT S.p.A., GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, NORCE Research AS, IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan National University
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,122
OpenAlex ID: W4375845012