Air-Sea Analysis of Marine Heatwaves in the Northeastern Pacific
Open Access
- Author:
- Kohlman, Catherine
- Area of Honors:
- Meteorology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Sukyoung Lee, Thesis Supervisor
Raymond Gabriel Najjar, Jr., Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- marine heatwave
climate change
physical oceanography
teleconnections
tropical heating
atmospheric anomalies
wavetrains
sea surface temperature
northeastern Pacific - Abstract:
- A marine heatwave is a region of large temperature anomalies in the uppermost part of the ocean. Recently these events have caught the attention of many scientists due to their increasing intensity, frequency, and persistence with climate change and the increased impacts on the chemistry and biology of the ocean. The northeastern Pacific experienced two strong marine heatwaves (2013-2015 & 2019) that caused havoc on fisheries, driving the necessity to understand how these events are created and how we can predict their impacts. Currently, there is a great knowledge gap in how marine heatwaves in the northeastern Pacific form and how the role of the ocean and atmosphere may influence their development. The study presented here performs a comprehensive look at 15 positive summertime temperature anomaly events in the northeastern Pacific from 1979 to 2020 using ERA5 and JRA-55 reanalysis datasets. The surface energy budget analysis performed suggests that the summertime sea surface temperature anomalies are heavily influenced by a change in the atmospheric circulation above the northeastern Pacific Ocean allowing anomalous downward solar radiation to drive the warming. This change in circulation is shown, through model simulations, to be connected to anomalous latent heating in the central tropical Pacific and the Maritime Continent that initiate Rossby wave propagation from the tropics to the northeastern Pacific. The results of this study offer a comprehensive view of multiple summertime events that can be used to increase the predictability of future summertime marine heatwaves. Increasing the predictability of marine heatwaves will improve our understanding and ability to manage the associated impacts of these anomalous events.