Articles | Volume 21, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1237-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1237-2025
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
07 Jul 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 07 Jul 2025

Local versus far-field control on South Pacific Subantarctic mode water variability

Ciara Pimm, Andrew J. S. Meijers, Dani C. Jones, and Richard G. Williams

Related authors

Modelled dynamics of floating and grounded icebergs, with application to the Amundsen Sea
Yavor Kostov, Paul R. Holland, Kelly A. Hogan, James A. Smith, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Pierre Mathiot, Anna Olivé Abelló, Andrew H. Fleming, and Andrew J. S. Meijers
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2423,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2423, 2025
Short summary
A normalised framework for the Zero Emissions Commitment
Richard G. Williams, Philip Goodwin, Paulo Ceppi, Chris D. Jones, and Andrew MacDougall
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-800,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-800, 2025
Short summary
An optimal transformation method applied to diagnose the ocean carbon budget
Neill Mackay, Taimoor Sohail, Jan David Zika, Richard G. Williams, Oliver Andrews, and Andrew James Watson
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 5987–6005, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5987-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5987-2024, 2024
Short summary
Climate feedbacks with latitude derived from climatological data and theory
Philip Goodwin, Richard Williams, Paulo Ceppi, and B. B. Cael
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2307,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2307, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Unsupervised classification identifies coherent thermohaline structures in the Weddell Gyre region
Dani C. Jones, Maike Sonnewald, Shenjie Zhou, Ute Hausmann, Andrew J. S. Meijers, Isabella Rosso, Lars Boehme, Michael P. Meredith, and Alberto C. Naveira Garabato
Ocean Sci., 19, 857–885, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-857-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-857-2023, 2023
Short summary

Cited articles

Boland, E. J., Jones, D. C., Meijers, A. J., Forget, G., and Josey, S. A.: Local and remote influences on the heat content of Southern Ocean mode water formation regions, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 126, e2020JC016585, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016585, 2021a. a, b, c, d
Boland, E. J. D., Jones, D. C., Meijers, A. J. S., Forget, G., and Josey, S. A.: Local and Remote Influences on the Heat Content of Southern Ocean Mode Water Formation Regions, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 126, e2020JC016585, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016585, 2021b. a
Bugnion, V., Hill, C., and Stone, P. H.: An Adjoint Analysis of the Meridional Overturning Circulation in an Ocean Model, J. Climate, 19, 3732–3750, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3787.1, 2006. a
Campin, J.-M., Heimbach, P., Losch, M., Forget, G., edhill3, Adcroft, A., amolod, Menemenlis, D., dfer22, Hill, C., Jahn, O., Scott, J., stephdut, Mazloff, M., Fox-Kemper, B., Doddridge, E., antnguyen13, Fenty, I., Bates, M., AndrewEichmann-NOAA, Smith, T., mitllheisey, Martin, T., Lauderdale, J., Abernathey, R., samarkhatiwala, Wang, O., dngoldberg, hongandyan, and Deremble, B.: MITgcm/MITgcm: checkpoint68i (Version checkpoint68i), Zenodo [software], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6498956, 2022. a, b, c
Campin, J.-M., Heimbach, P., Losch, M., Forget, G., edhill3, Adcroft, A., amolod, Menemenlis, D., dfer22, Jahn, O., Hill, C., Scott, J., stephdut, Mazloff, M., Fox-Kemper, B., antnguyen13, Doddridge, E., Fenty, I., Bates, M., Smith, T., AndrewEichmann-NOAA, mitllheisey, Lauderdale, J., Martin, T., Abernathey, R., Wang, O., samarkhatiwala, dngoldberg, hongandyan, and Deremble, B.: MITgcm/MITgcm: ckeckpoint68r (Version checkpoint68r), Zenodo [software], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8208482, 2023. a, b
Download
Co-editor-in-chief
This paper highlights a new implementation of density co-ordinate functionality within an adjoint ocean model, the MITgcm ECCO adjoint. This is illustrated accordingly with a science application investigating the variability of Subantarctic Mode Water. The use of adjoints helps to trace causal links within the ocean, and the density-following feature is of particular interest for the ocean community with many possible further applications.
Short summary
Subantarctic mode water in the South Pacific Ocean is important due to its role in the uptake and transport of anthropogenic heat and carbon. The Subantarctic mode water region can be split into two pools using mixed-layer-depth properties. Sensitivity experiments are used to understand the effects of heating and wind on each pool. It is found that the optimal conditions to form large amounts of Subantarctic mode water in the South Pacific are local cooling and upstream warming combined.
Share