Ocean Science
Ocean Science
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Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-953-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-953-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
Research article
 | 
06 Jul 2022
Research article |  | 06 Jul 2022

Causes of the 2015 North Atlantic cold anomaly in a global state estimate

Rachael N. C. Sanders, Daniel C. Jones, Simon A. Josey, Bablu Sinha, and Gael Forget

Data sets

Synopsis of the ECCO central production global ocean and sea-ice state estimate ECCO Consortium, I. Fukumori, O. Wang, I. Fenty, G. Forget, P. Heimbach, and R. Ponte https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3765929

Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst/data/download.html) N. Rayner, D. E. Parker, E. Horton, C. K. Folland, L. V. Alexander, D. Rowell, E. Kent, and A. Kaplan https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002670

EN.4.2.2 data Met Office Hadley Centre https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/en4/

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Short summary
In 2015, record low temperatures were observed in the North Atlantic. Using an ocean model, we show that surface heat loss in December 2013 caused 75 % of the initial cooling before this "cold blob" was trapped below the surface. The following summer, the cold blob re-emerged due to a strong temperature difference between the surface ocean and below, driving vertical diffusion of heat. Lower than average surface warming then led to the coldest temperature anomalies in August 2015.
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