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Physical oceanography

Drivers of Southern Ocean cooling

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, page 4 (2024)Cite this article

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Southern Ocean sea surface temperatures (SST) cooled by ~–0.1 °C dec–1 from 1980 to 2010, with ecological and climatic impacts. This cooling tendency has often been linked to a greenhouse gas- and stratospheric ozone depletion-induced positive trend in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), a corresponding strengthening of the mid-latitude westerlies and resulting northward Ekman transport. While there is clear support for such relationships at seasonal timescales, evidence of these dynamics driving Southern Ocean cooling over multi-decadal timescales is contradictory.

Other drivers must, therefore, be important contributors to this cooling trend. Possible contenders include freshwater input from ice melt, natural variability, northward sea-ice transport, or remote teleconnections. Ascertaining these drivers is integral to better projecting changes in the Southern Ocean under ongoing anthropogenic forcing.

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References

Original article

  • Dong, Y. et al. Recent multi-decadal Southern Ocean surface cooling unlikely caused by Southern Annular Mode trends. Geophys. Res. Lett. 50, e2023GL106142 (2023)

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  1. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment https://www.nature.com/natrevearthenviron

    Graham Simpkins

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  1. Graham Simpkins
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Correspondence to Graham Simpkins.

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Simpkins, G. Drivers of Southern Ocean cooling. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 4 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00513-x

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