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Non-linear tidal dynamics can produce prominent time-mean transport in coastal regions where strong tidal currents interact with topography. We investigate tidal-induced transport using a tidally driven ocean model for Lofoten–Vesterålen in northern Norway and find that both tidal pumping and tidal rectification can play an important role for time-mean transport in the region. The study emphasizes the importance of non-linear tidal dynamics for time-mean transport in complex coastal regions.

Over the past decade, understanding of the Indian Ocean has progressed through new observations and advances in theory and models of the oceanic and atmospheric circulation. This review brings together new understanding of the ocean–atmosphere system in the Indian Ocean, describing Indian Ocean circulation patterns, air–sea interactions, climate variability, and the critical role of the Indian Ocean as a clearing house for anthropogenic heat.

The exchange of carbon dioxide (CO₂) between the sea and the atmosphere is regulated by the gradient of CO₂ partial pressure (pCO₂) between the sea and the air. The daily variation of the seawater pCO₂ recorded at the fixed station Utö in the Baltic Sea was found to be mainly biologically driven. Calculation of the annual net exchange of CO₂ between the sea and atmosphere based on daily measurements of pCO₂ carried out using the same sampling time every day could introduce a bias of up to 12 %.

Here, we describe a strait that has narrow and shallow sills in both ends and is close to an amphidromic region. This generates tidally driven flows into and out of the strait, but with very different exchange rates across the entrances in both ends so that it behaves like a mixture between a strait and a fjord. Using a numerical model, we find a fortnightly signal in the net transport through the strait, generated by long-period tides. Our findings are verified by observations.

Observations of sea level, taken manually by reading a tide pole, were carefully taken at a number of locations around Ireland in 1842 as part of the first land survey of Ireland. Our study investigates how useful this type of sea level observation is for understanding mean sea level and tidal change. We find that when carefully adjusted for seasonal, meteorological, and astronomical factors, these data can provide important insights into changing sea levels.

Research on strong El Niños has shown that they may be a result of a stronger-than-normal North Equatorial Counter Current, itself triggered by lower-than-normal sea levels that develop early in the year. A numerical model study of the 1981–1982 El Niño shows that the low sea levels are due to local winds in the west Pacific, and this is shown also to be true for the 1997–1998 and 2015–2016 El Niños. As a result, we now have a much better understanding of the mechanism causing strong El Niños.

Internal tides are responsible for surface deformations of the ocean that could affect the measurements of the forthcoming SWOT altimetric mission and need to be corrected. This study highlights the variability of the properties of internal tides based on the stratification variability only. A single methodology is successfully applied in two areas driven by different oceanic processes: the western equatorial Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay.

Understanding tidal hydrodynamics is essential for water resources management in estuarine environments. In this study, we propose an analytical model to examine the fortnightly water level variations due to tidal motions alone in tide-dominated estuaries. Details of the analytical model show that changes in the mean depth or length of semi-arid estuaries affect the fortnightly tide amplitude, which has significant potential impacts on the estuarine ecosystem management.

We propose a probabilistic method and a new inter-class comparison metric for highlighting fronts in the Southern Ocean. We compare it with an image processing method that provides a more localised view of fronts that effectively highlights sharp jets. These two complementary approaches offer two views of Southern Ocean structure: the probabilistic method highlights boundaries between coherent thermohaline structures across the entire Southern Ocean, whereas edge detection highlights local jets.

Regions of enhanced chlorophyll-a concentrations can be identified by applying a threshold to the concentration value to a forecast and observed field (or analysis). These regions can then be treated and analysed as features using diagnostic techniques to consider of the evolution of the chlorophyll-a blooms in space and time. This allows us to understand whether the biogeochemistry in the model has any skill in predicting these blooms, their location, intensity, onset, duration and demise.

In 2018, the Canadian Coast Guard approved a science team to sample in tandem with its ice-breaking and ship escorting operations. This collaboration provided the first mixing observations during winter that covered the largest spatial extent of the St. Lawrence Estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence ever measured in any season. Contrary to previous assumptions, we demonstrate that fluvial nitrate inputs from upstream (i.e., Great Lakes) are the most significant source of nitrate in the estuary.

The large oxygen minimum zones in the tropical Pacific Ocean are still not well represented by typical climate models. We analyze a set of ocean models and highlight the fact that an oxygen concentration that is too low at intermediate depth in the subtropical regions associated with a sluggish representation of the intermediate equatorial current system may be responsible for the overly large extension of the modeled oxygen minimum zones, potentially hampering future projections.

We characterized the pattern and magnitude of decadal sea-level variability in the Australasian Mediterranean Sea by using high-resolution ocean models. Our results suggest low-frequency ENSO variations and PDO-related changes as a primary source of variability. Sensitivity experiments indicate that anomalies are primarily driven by wind stress fluctuation but are also amplified by local heat and freshwater fluxes. Intrinsic variability is relevant in the South China Sea.

The Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio are major currents of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, respectively. They transport warm water northward and are key components of the Earth climate system. For this study, we looked at how they affect the sea level of the coasts of Japan, the USA and Canada. We found that the inshore sea level co-varies with the north-to-south shifts of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio. In the paper, we discuss the physical mechanisms that could explain the agreement.

Satellite measurements of sea surface salinity (SSS) are compared with measurements in the ocean to verify the quality of the satellite data. SSS satellites measure average values over a footprint with size of ~100 km, whereas ocean values are usually taken at a single point in space and time. Using SSS data from a network of buoys across the global tropics, we estimate the size of the mismatch between satellite and in situ measurements to better understand the error structure of the satellite.

A suspended particulate matter distribution against a hydrographical background was studied along an oceanographic transect across the Equatorial Atlantic in the year 2000. Alongside the general agreement with the three-layer model of the ocean suspended particulate matter distribution, there was a massive area with high SPM concentrations above the Sierra Leone Rise and local SPM maxima in the bottom layer within Antarctic Bottom Water.

A narrow tidal strait often leads to net transport in one direction, and the water flowing through the strait is not the same as the water that is drawn back into the strait when the tidal flow turns. We investigated this process by simulating the transport through tidal straits of different lengths and widths. A simple theory is established that describes the net transport. The theory can be applied to real coastlines when predicting spreading of pollution and other substances in the ocean.

The Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) is a key influence on upwelling of nutrient-rich waters associated ecosystems off Peru. To quantify this influence, we backtrack upwelling waters in a computer model of ocean currents, annually, over 1989–2007. The EUC influence varies from year to year, dominating in warm El Niño years, when the EUC extends much closer to the Peruvian coast. In other years, more local upwelling is associated with coastal winds, coincident with major key population shifts.

Significant trends of sea ice in Hudson Bay have led to a considerable increase in shipping activity. Therefore, understanding sea level variability is an urgent issue crucial for safe navigation and coastal infrastructure. Using the sea level, atmospheric and river discharge data, we assess environmental factors impacting variability of sea level at Churchill. We find that it is dominated by wind forcing, with the seasonal cycle generated by the seasonal cycle in atmospheric circulation.

Recent work has highlighted the dominant role of the Irminger and Iceland basins in the production of North Atlantic Deep Water. From our analysis, we find that air–sea fluxes and the ocean surface density field are both key determinants of the buoyancy-driven transformation in the Iceland Basin. However, the spatial distribution of the subpolar mode water (SPMW) transformation is most sensitive to surface density changes as opposed to the direct influence of the air–sea fluxes.