Ocean Circulation and Climate

Gerold Siedler is a physical oceanographer at the marine research institute in Kiel/Germany. He established a highly regarded ocean observing unit and participated in almost 30 research cruises. His research focused on ocean processes and circulation in all three oceans. He was professor at Kiel University, Director of the marine research institute IfM (1976-1978) and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences (1991-1992) at Kiel University. In addition he worked as visiting investigator abroad, in particular at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA, including teaching in the WHOI/MIT joint program. He performed research at the University of Miami, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Pasadena, the University of Hawaii in the USA, the Laboratory for the Physics of the Ocean, Paris and Ifremer/Brest in France, and as a Humboldt researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He served in leading functions in major international ocean/climate programs, in particular GATE and WOCE. He was a vice-president of the Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO, 1975-1979) and a president of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR, 1983-1988) at ICSU. He published 77 peer-reviewed papers, authored or edited 4 books and contributed to 18 books. He is now Emeritus Professor at Kiel University. Stephen Griffies is a senior scientist at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, USA. He is an expert on physical and numerical aspects of ocean circulation models and their applications for understanding and predicting large-scale climate phenomena. His research focuses on questions related to global and regional sea level; ocean mesoscale dynamics and parameterizations; climate predictability; physically based analysis methods; and numerical algorithms. He is a leader in projects associated with the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), having led the WCRP/CLIVAR Working Group on Ocean Model Development as part of coordinating ocean climate modeling efforts worldwide. Besides his 20 years in Princeton, he has worked for extended periods in Australia on topics related to the ocean climate modeling, Southern Ocean dynamics, and physical ocean processes. He authored a standard monograph on fundamentals of ocean climate models and co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed research articles. He was awarded the 2014 Fridtjof Nansen Medal from the European Geosciences Union for contributions to oceanography. John Gould (sometimes known as W. John) has had a long career in ocean research mostly focused on the collection and interpretation of ocean current measurements. His career started with working with John Swallow, who first developed the neutrally buoyant float at the UK National Institute of Oceanography. He led many research cruises in the North Atlantic Ocean. He was Project Director of the World Climate Research Programme’s World Ocean Circulation Experiment- WOCE (1993-2002) and of its Climate Variability and Predictability Study -CLIVAR (1998-2002). From 2002-2006 he directed the international Argo profiling float project. At various times he has chaired the ICES Oceanic Hydrography Working Group and been a member of the executive of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean and a member of the advisory board for Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). He has an interest in widening public awareness of marine science and of the oceans’ role in climate. He is a member of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysic’s History Working Group and is a visiting scientist at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre. John Church is a CSIRO Fellow with the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research. His area of expertise is the role of the ocean in climate, particularly anthropogenic climate change and sea-level rise. He has been a Principal Investigator on NASA/CNES satellite altimeter Science Working Teams since 1987. He was co-convening lead author for the Chapter on Sea Level in the IPCC Third and Fifth Assessment Reports. He Co-Chaired the international Scientific Steering Group for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment from 1994 to 1998 and Chaired the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme from 2006 to 2008. He was awarded the 2006 Roger Revelle Medal by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, was a winner of a CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement in 2006, won the 2007 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research and presented the 2008 AMOS R.H. Clarke Lecture. He is the author of over 120 refereed publications, 80 other reports and co-edited three books. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

"The current state of knowledge is summarized in this new book, written by 76 authors from 15 countries...Two developments in particular provided new knowledge on the oceanic circulation. First there has been a most remarkable progress in ocean observations, with a transition from special experiments to long-term monitoring… The second cause is the rapid progress in the modeling of ocean, sea ice and atmosphere." --CLIVAR.org, February 2014The introduction of the book summarizes the role of ocean in the present climate system and in the earlier paleoclimate state. After a discussion of current observational methods, new results are given on physical processes in the ocean… Because of the increasing importance of models for the understanding and prediction of ocean and climate change, a large part of the book deals with modeling and the results on long-term changes." --Geomar online, November 2013"Ocean Circulation and Climate belongs on every climate geek's holiday wish list…the book, subtitled ‘A 21st Century Perspective", is both timely and important. It contains 31 chapters that span the present state of knowledge. The 78 authors provide a truly international perspective as recognized experts in their respective fields." --TheGuardian.com, November 2013"Ocean Circulation and Climate is the culmination of a multi-national, multi-decadal program designed to observe the global ocean. ...a voluminous book, unique in that there is no other single volume to which one can turn as a source for the cutting edge of knowledge of the large-scale circulation and properties of the ocean. ...lays the foundation for the daunting challenge of understanding the future of the world oceans and their role in climate change." --Journal Of International Geoscience"...excellent editing and production quality plus hundreds of diagrams and dozens of color plates. It will be essential for ocean and climate scientists for years to come." --New Scientist, October 2001

• Part I: The oceans’ role in the climate system1 The ocean as a component of the climate system2 Paleoclimatic ocean circulation and sea level changesPart II: Ocean observations3 In-situ ocean observations: A brief history, present status and future directions4 Remote sensing of the global ocean circulationPart III: Ocean processes 5 Exchanges through the ocean surface 6 Thermodynamics of seawater7 Diapycnal mixing processes in the ocean interior8 Lateral transport in the ocean interior9 Global distribution and formation of mode waters10 Deep water formationPart IV: Ocean circulation and water masses11 Conceptual models of the wind-driven and thermohaline circulation12 Ocean surface circulation 13 Western boundary currents14 Currents and processes along the eastern boundaries15 The tropical ocean circulation and dynamics16 The marine cryosphere17 The Arctic and subarctic oceans/seas18 Dynamics of the Southern Ocean circulation19 Inter-ocean and inter-basin exchangesPart V: Modeling the ocean climate system20 Ocean circulation models and modeling21 Dynamically and kinematically consistent global ocean circulation and ice state estimates22 Methods and applications of ocean synthesis in climate research 23 Coupled models and climate projections24 The oceans’ role in modeling and predicting seasonal-to-interannual climate variations25 The oceans’ role in modeling and predicting decadal climate variations26 Modeling ocean biogeochemical processes and resulting tracer distributionsPart VI: The changing ocean27 Sea-level and ocean heat-content change28 Long-term salinity changes and implications for the global water cycle29 Ocean heat transport30 The marine carbon cycle and ocean carbon inventories31 Marine ecosystems, biogeochemistry, and climate