Anthropogenic speed-up of oceanic planetary waves

The Contribution of 18 Years of Altimetry to the Understanding of Oceanic Planetary Waves

In the past 18 years, our knowledge of that particular class of oceanic planetary waves also known as Rossby waves has improved significantly. Before the advent of altimetry they were already an important dynamical concept with a good theoretical understanding, but supported by very few, sparse observations; now they are a well-documented phenomenon, recorded in many different parameters in all...

The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO2.

Using inorganic carbon measurements from an international survey effort in the 1990s and a tracer-based separation technique, we estimate a global oceanic anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) sink for the period from 1800 to 1994 of 118 +/- 19 petagrams of carbon. The oceanic sink accounts for approximately 48% of the total fossil-fuel and cement-manufacturing emissions, implying that the terrest...

Satellite-based Research on Oceanic Planetary Waves: Recent Advances and Open Questions

This paper discusses several open questions relevant to the dynamics of oceanic planetary waves, to their effects on phytoplankton and to their role in climate change. These questions have been prompted by the last two decades of satellite observations of planetary waves – initially with altimeters but now also with SST and ocean colour – which have also stimulated significant advances in our t...

Comments on "The effect of bottom topography on the speed of long extra-tropical planetary waves"

Oceanic Uptake of Anthropogenic CO₂: TheMajor Uncertainties

The recent notes by Broecker [1991] and by Smith and Mackenzie [1991] rightfully point out that many oceanographers do not have a clear grasp of the relationship between the oceanic biological pump and anthropogenic CO2 transient. This misunderstanding has unfortunately led some scientists to make misleading claims as to the importance of the biological pump in the anthropogenic transient. It i...