Mon Dec 15, F. Flechtner
• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •
Cocks, Jennifer, Silvano, Alessandro, Naveira Garabato, Alberto C., Dragomir, Oana, Schifano, Noémie, Hogg, Anna E., and Marzocchi, Alice, 2025. Satellite-derived steric height in the Southern Ocean: trends, variability, and climate drivers. Ocean Science, 21(4):1609–1625, doi:10.5194/os-21-1609-2025.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@ARTICLE{2025OcSci..21.1609C,
author = {{Cocks}, Jennifer and {Silvano}, Alessandro and {Naveira Garabato}, Alberto C. and {Dragomir}, Oana and {Schifano}, No{\'e}mie and {Hogg}, Anna E. and {Marzocchi}, Alice},
title = "{Satellite-derived steric height in the Southern Ocean: trends, variability, and climate drivers}",
journal = {Ocean Science},
year = 2025,
month = jul,
volume = {21},
number = {4},
pages = {1609-1625},
abstract = "{The Southern Ocean circulation plays a central role in regulating the
global ocean overturning, ventilating the deep ocean, and
driving sea level rise by delivering heat to Antarctic ice
shelves. Understanding heat and freshwater content in this
region is key to monitoring these global processes and
identifying multi-year changes; however, in situ observations
are limited and often do not offer the spatial or temporal
consistency needed to study long-term variability. Perturbations
in steric height can reveal changes in oceanic heat and
freshwater content inasmuch as they impact the density of the
water column. Here, we show for the first time that the monthly
steric height anomaly of the Southern Ocean south of
50{\textdegree} S can be assessed using satellite altimetry and
GRACE gravimetry data from 2002 to 2018. Steric height anomalies
are validated against in situ Argo float and
conductivity{\textendash}temperature{\textendash}depth (CTD)
data from tagged elephant seals. We find good agreement north of
65{\textdegree} S, but there is increasing uncertainty towards
the Antarctic continental shelf due to insufficient validation
data, the leakage error, and anti-aliasing in GRACE. The
Southern Ocean steric height anomalies capture the expected
seasonal cycle of low (high) steric height in winter (summer)
and show regionally variable trends during
2002{\textendash}2018. We find that the variability in steric
height is driven predominantly by anomalies in surface heat and
freshwater content associated with positive and negative phases
of the two major modes of Southern Hemisphere climate
variability (the El Ni{\~n}o{\textendash}Southern Oscillation
and Southern Annular Mode). This steric height dataset provides
a uniquely comprehensive insight into density anomalies and
presents opportunities for further analysis of heat and
freshwater fluxes, changes in stratification, or convective
regimes across the Southern Ocean.}",
doi = {10.5194/os-21-1609-2025},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025OcSci..21.1609C},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
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