We analyzed changes in wind patterns during the last 70 years (1948–2017) in the Canary Current area, located in one of the major upwelling regions in the world, using monthly NCEP wind data. Results demonstrate that Trade Winds were quite stable in direction but they suffered a significant net decrease of 1 m s^-1 in intensity. We also found significant correlations between the NAO index and the wind direction and intensity, specifically in winter, and between the AMO index and the wind direction.

Seismic oceanography acquires water column reflections by seismic exploration. The use of high frequency seismic source such as sparker can enhance the resolution of reflection image, but suffers from a low signal-to-noise ratio problem. In this study, we applied a machine learning to remove the random noise in water column seismic section. We constructed an appropriate training data and showed that the machine learning can successfully remove the random noise in water column seismic section.

In this work, we combine both the long-term, broad sea surface observational data and the high spatial resolution, reliable direct observational data to study the oceanic front east of Japan which has important impacts on the regional ecosystem, fishery and atmosphere. We analyze several interesting oceanic processes including thermohaline intrusion, double diffusion mixing and turbulent mixing in the frontal zone as well.

This study examines the accumulation of microplastics on wild and cultured mussels through a Dynamic Energy Budget model, resulting in a comparable contamination level but different cleaning time for the mussels. Our main findings highlight that microplastics contamination is strongly depended on the variability of specific environmental aspects and improve the knowledge of the transport and accumulation of microplastics in the mussels, enlighting future work on a biomagnification scenario.

Tropical oxygen minimum zones expanded during the last decades. One of the process responsible of the supply of oxygen in the eastern tropical regions is the transport of oxygen-rich water masses originating from the high latitudes. We highlight that most of current climate numerical models present strong biases : high latitude and tropical oxygen levels are too low and the deep currents systems are too weak. These biases need to be reduced to perform reliable projections in a changing climate.

We assessed the potential benefit of a new verification metric, developed by the atmospheric community, to assess high-resolution ocean models against coarser resolution configurations. Typical verification metrics often do not show any benefit when high-resolution models are compared to lower resolution configurations. The new metric showed improvements in higher resolution models away from the grid-scale. The technique can be applied to both deterministic and ensemble forecasts.

We analyzed a 14-month long observations from moored instruments to describe the average features and the variability of the Norwegian Atlantic Slope Current at the Lofoten Escarpment. The slope current varies strongly with depth, and in time. Pulses of strong current occur, lasting for 1 to 2 weeks, and extend as deep as 600 m. The average volume transport is 2.8 million cubic meters per second.

Data assimilation is the most comprehensive strategy to estimate the biogeochemical state of the ocean. Here, surface Chl-a data are daily assimilated into a 24 member NEMO-PISCES ensemble configuration to implement a complete 4D assimilation system. Results show the assimilation increases the skills of the ensemble, though a regional diagnosis suggests that the description of model and observations uncertainties needs to be refined according to the biogeochemical characteristics of each region.

AMOC controls climate and is driven both by wind and buoyancy-driven formation of North Atlantic Deep Water. Density changes are expected to connect to tropical regions. Since we have observations at 26N, we develop methods to identify density profiles at 26N at the boundaries which relate to AMOC. Polar density anomalies propagate equatorward along the western boundary, then eastward along the equator and poleward up the eastern boundary. We found 2 years lag between boundaries at 3000 m.

High Frequency Radar technology measures coastal ocean surface currents. The use of this technology is increasing as it provides near-real time information that can be used in oil spill or search and rescue emergencies to forecast the trajectories of the floating objects. In this work, a Short-Term Prediction methodology is presented and it provides surface currents’ forecasts of up to 48 hours. The primary advantage of it, is that it is easily implemented in real time.

Our investigations give a detailed insight on the changing current system at intermediate depth in the Arabian Sea and allows to draw conclusion on the maintenance and seasonal variability of the oxygen minimum zone, that is influenced by the monsoon.

The dynamical balance of the Antarctic circumpolar current and their implications on the functioning of the world ocean are not fully understood and poorly represented in global circulation models. In this study, the sensitivities of an idealized Southern Ocean (SO) storm track are explored with a set of eddy-rich numerical simulations. We show that the classical partition between barotropic and baroclinic modes is sensitive to current-topography interactions in the mesoscale range 10-100 km.

This study provides for the first time estimates of sea level anomalies very close to the coastline, based on high-resolution retracked altimetry data, as well as corresponding sea level trends over a 14-year time span. This new information so far not provided by standard altimetry data.

Very little is currently known about the activities and emissions of private leisure boats. To change this, a new model was created (BEAM). The model was used for the Baltic Sea to estimate leisure boat emissions, also considering antifouling paint leach. When compared against commercial shipping, the modelled leasure boat emissions were seen to be surprisingly large for some pollutant species, and these emissions heavily concentrated on coastal inhabitated areas during summer and early autumn.