There is a special reason for reviewing this book at this time: it is the 50th edition of a compendium that is known and used frequently in most chemical and physical laboratories in many parts of the world. Surely, a publication that has been published for 56 years, withstanding the vagaries of science in this century, must have had something to offer. There is another reason: while the book is a standard fixture in most chemical and physical laboratories, including those in medical centers, it is not as frequently seen in the laboratories of physician's offices (those either in solo or group practice). I believe that the Handbook can be useful in those laboratories. One of the reasons, among others, is that the various basic items of information it offers may be helpful in new tests, either physical or chemical, which are continuously being published. The basic information may relate

Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

The potential for sea ice-albedo feedback to give rise to nonlinear climate change in the Arctic Ocean – defined as a nonlinear relationship between polar and global temperature change or, equivalently, a time-varying polar amplification – is explored in IPCC AR4 climate models. Five models supplying SRES A1B ensembles for the 21 st century are examined and very linear relationships are found between polar and global temperatures (indicating linear Arctic Ocean climate change), and between polar temperature and albedo (the potential source of nonlinearity). Two of the climate models have Arctic Ocean simulations that become annually sea ice-free under the stronger CO 2 increase to quadrupling forcing. Both of these runs show increases in polar amplification at polar temperatures above-5 o C and one exhibits heat budget changes that are consistent with the small ice cap instability of simple energy balance models. Both models show linear warming up to a polar temperature of-5 o C, well above the disappearance of their September ice covers at about-9 o C. Below-5 o C, surface albedo decreases smoothly as reductions move, progressively, to earlier parts of the sunlit period. Atmospheric heat transport exerts a strong cooling effect during the transition to annually ice-free conditions. Specialized experiments with atmosphere and coupled models show that the main damping mechanism for sea ice region surface temperature is reduced upward heat flux through the adjacent ice-free oceans resulting in reduced atmospheric heat transport into the region.

Geophysical fluid dynamics.

The ocean circulation is a cause and consequence of fluid scale interactions ranging from millimeters to more than 10,000 km. Although the wind field produces a large energy input to the ocean, all but approximately 10% appears to be dissipated within about 100 m of the sea surface, rendering observations of the energy divergence necessary to maintain the full water-column flow difficult. Attention thus shifts to the physically different kinetic energy (KE) reservoirs of the circulation and their maintenance, dissipation, and possible influence on the very small scales representing irreversible molecular mixing. Oceanic KE is dominated by the geostrophic eddy field, and depending on the vertical structure (barotropic versus low-mode baroclinic), direct and inverse energy cascades are possible. The pathways toward dissipation of the dominant geostrophic eddy KE depend crucially on the direction of the cascade but are difficult to quantify because of serious observational difficulties for wavelengths shorte...

Ocean Circulation Kinetic Energy: Reservoirs, Sources, and Sinks

Because of its relevance for the global climate the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) has been a major research focus for many years. Yet the question of which physical mechanisms ultimately drive the AMOC, in the sense of providing its energy supply, remains a matter of controversy. Here we review both observational data and model results concerning the two main candidates: vertical mixing processes in the ocean's interior and wind-induced Ekman upwelling in the Southern Ocean. In distinction to the energy source we also discuss the role of surface heat and freshwater fluxes, which influence the volume transport of the meridional overturning circulation and shape its spatial circulation pattern without actually supplying energy to the overturning itself in steady state. We conclude that both wind-driven upwelling and vertical mixing are likely contributing to driving the observed circulation. To quantify their respective contributions, future research needs to address some open questions, which we outline.

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On the driving processes of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

Global seasonal cycles of the wind and wind stress fields estimated from the 8-yr record (September 1999–August 2007) of wind measurements by the NASA Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) are presented. While this atlas, referred to here as the Scatterometer Climatology of Ocean Winds (SCOW), consists of 12 variables, the focus here is on the wind stress and wind stress derivative (curl and divergence) fields. SCOW seasonal cycles are compared with seasonal cycles estimated from NCEP–NCAR reanalysis wind fields. These comparisons show that the SCOW atlas is able to capture small-scale features that are dynamically important to both the ocean and the atmosphere but are not resolved in other observationally based wind atlases or in NCEP–NCAR reanalysis fields. This is particularly true of the wind stress derivative fields in which topographic, SST gradient, and ocean current influences on surface winds are plainly visible. Discussions of five example regions are presented to highlight these seasonally re...

/pdf/a-global-climatology-of-surface-wind-and-wind-stress-fields-1qi8lvx26y.pdf

A Global Climatology of Surface Wind and Wind Stress Fields from Eight Years of QuikSCAT Scatterometer Data

Wind stress energy input through the surface ageostrophic currents is studied. The surface ageostrophic velocity is calculated using the classical formula of the Ekman spiral, with the Ekman depth determined from an empirical formula. The total amount of energy input over the global oceans for subinertial frequency is estimated as 2.4 TW averaged over a period from 1997 to 2002, or 2.3 TW averaged over a period from 1948 to 2002, based on daily wind stress data from NCEP‐NCAR. Thus, in addition to the energy input to the near inertial waves of 0.5‐0.7 TW reported by Alford and by Watanabe and Hibiya, the total energy input to the Ekman layer is estimated as 3 TW. This input is concentrated primarily over the Southern Ocean and the storm track in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans.

https://www.whoi.edu/science/po/people/rhuang/publication/2004Ekman.pdf

Wind Energy Input to the Ekman Layer

Wind energy input into the ocean is primarily produced through surface waves. The total rate of this energy source, integrated over the World Ocean, is estimated at 60 TW, based on empirical formulas and results from a numerical model of surface waves. Thus, surface wave energy input is about 50 times the energy input to the surface geostrophic current and 20 times the total tidal dissipation rate. Most of the energy input is concentrated within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Wind Energy Input to the Surface Waves

Wind-stress energy input to the oceans is the most important source of mechanical energy in maintaining the oceanic general circulation. Previous studies indicate that wind-energy input to the Ekman layer and surface waves has varied greatly over the past 50 years. In this study, wind-energy input to surface current and surface geostrophic current was calculated as the scalar product of wind stress and surface current and surface geostrophic current. The surface geostrophic current was calculated in two ways: the surface geostrophic velocity was diagnosed from the TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data between 1993 and 2003, and calculated from the sea-surface height of the numerical model. The surface velocity was obtained from a numerical model. Estimate of wind-energy input based on altimetric data averaged over 1993–2003 is 0.84 TW ( 1 TW = 1 0 12 W ) , excluding the equatorial band (within ± 3 ∘ of the equator). Estimate of the wind-energy input to the surface geostrophic current based on the numerical model is 0.87 TW averaged from 1993 to 2003, and wind-energy input to the surface current for the same period is 1.16 TW. This input is primarily concentrated over the Southern Ocean and the equatorial region ( 2 0 ∘ S - 2 0 ∘ N ) . This energy varied greatly on interannual and decadal time scales, and it increased 12% over the past 25 years, and the interannual variability mainly occurs in the latitude band of 4 0 ∘ S - 6 0 ∘ S and the equatorial region.

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Decadal variability of wind-energy input to the world ocean

Author Posting. © Cambridge University Press, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics 540 (2005): 49-73, doi:10.1017/S002211200500577X.

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An experimental study on thermal circulation driven by horizontal differential heating

Wind stress and tidal dissipation are the most important sources of mechanical energy for maintaining the oceanic general circulation. The contribution of mechanical energy due to tropical cyclones can be a vitally important factor in regulating the oceanic general circulation and its variability. However, previous estimates of wind stress energy input were based on low-resolution wind stress data in which strong nonlinear events, such as tropical cyclones, were smoothed out. Using a hurricane–ocean coupled model constructed from an axisymmetric hurricane model and a threelayer ocean model, the rate of energy input to the world’s oceans induced by tropical cyclones over the period from 1984 to 2003 was estimated. The energy input is estimated as follows: 1.62 TW to the surface waves and 0.10 TW to the surface currents (including 0.03 TW to the near-inertial motions). The rate of gravitational potential energy increase due to tropical cyclones is 0.05 TW. Both the energy input from tropical cyclones and the increase of gravitational potential energy of the ocean show strong interannual and decadal variability with an increasing rate of 16% over the past 20 years. The annual mean diapycnal upwelling induced by tropical cyclones over the past 20 years is estimated as 39 Sv (Sv 10 6 m 3 s 1 ). Owing to tropical cyclones, diapycnal mixing in the upper ocean (below the mixed layer) is greatly enhanced. Within the regimes of strong activity of tropical cyclones, the increase of diapycnal diffusivity is on the order of (1 6) 10 4 m 2 s 1 . The tropical cyclone–related energy input and diapycnal mixing may play an important role in climate variability, ecology, fishery, and environments.

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Wei Wang

Papers

Wind Energy Input to the Ekman Layer

Wind Energy Input to the Surface Waves

Decadal variability of wind-energy input to the world ocean

An experimental study on thermal circulation driven by horizontal differential heating

The Mechanical Energy Input to the Ocean Induced by Tropical Cyclones