A large fraction (35%–50%) of observed La Niña events last two years or longer, in contrast to the great majority ofElNiño events, which last one year. Here, the authors explore the nonlinear processes responsible for the multiyear persistence of La Niña in the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4), a coupled climate model that simulates the asymmetric duration of La Niña and El Niñ...

In this thesis, I study the time-varying behavior of a ventilated thermocline with basin scales at annual and decadal time scales. The variability is forced by three external forcings: the wind stress (chapter 3), the surface heat flux (chapter 4) and the upwelling along the eastern boundary (chapter 5). It is found that the thermocline variability is forced mainly by wind in a shadow zone whil...

Basin-scale variations in oceanic physical variables are thought to organize patterns of biological response across the Pacific Ocean over decadal time scales. Different physical mechanisms can be responsible for the diverse basin-scale patterns of sea-surface temperature (SST), mixed-layer depth, thermocline depth, and horizontal currents, although they are linked in various ways. In light of ...

A recent paper [Song et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123, 856-865 (2008)] investigated ocean variability impact on coherent underwater acoustic communications (8-16 kHz) for a single near-seafloor transmitter in shallow water during an extended period (27 h). This letter extends that investigation to various source depths and receiver subarrays. Specifically, the middle water column source, which i...

In this paper we extend earlier results regarding the effects of the lower layer of the ocean (below the thermocline) on the baroclinic instability within the upper layer (above the thermocline). We confront quasigeostrophic baroclinic instability properties of a 2.5-layer model with those of a 3-layer model with a very thick deep layer, which has been shown to predict spectral instability for ...

The long term goal of this work is to understand the physics of turbulent stratified shear flows as might be found in coastal regions and estuaries where both shear and stratification are strong. It is our hypothesis that turbulence under these conditions of active generation may function in a way that is fundamentally different from weak turbulence below the thermocline (or above the bottom mi...