Salty intermediate waters key for surface to deep heat transfer in the NAtlantic during the 2000s

Just a nice example of the subtle interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere. Source: Raquel Somavilla

Hace exactamente una semana en el magazine EOS Earth & Space Science News publicaron lo que se llama un Research Spotlight sobre mi último artículo titulado 'Mid-2000s North Atlantic shift: Heat budget and circulation changes' publicado en la revista Geophysical Research Letters. Hacer una traducción del artículo me lleva demasiado tiempo, pero un hacer una traducción del Research Spotlight junto con algún otro dato adicional es más rápido y creo que merece la pena. Aquí lo tenéis,. Seguid leyendo y cualquier duda o comentario ya sabéis, más abajo. No os cortéis.

Now exactly one week ago, the EOS Earth & Space Science news magazine published a Reserach Spotlight about my last paper published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters and titled 'Mid-2000s North Atlantic shift: Heat budget and circulation changes'. Below you have a Spanish translation of the Research Spotlight, but those interested in the English version here again the link. Feel fee to ask below!

The warmer the ocean surface, the shallower the mixed layer. How much of this is true?

Hace unas semanas colgué esto en la página de facebook del blog

Some weeks ago, I post that on the facebook page of the blog:

Y mis MARes (vosotras sabéis quien sois) mostraron mucho interés. He tardado un poco, como de costumbre, pero aquí os dejo un poquito más de lo que puedo contar de momento …  en formato video! 

And mis MARes showed much interest. It took a while, as usually, but here you have a little bit more than I can tell you for now ... and as a video! 

The warmer the ocean surface, the shalowwer the mixed layer. How much of this thrue?

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On the way to the FAMOS School and Workshop

Here I am. It’s 6:31 am, and I’m on the way to Bremen airport to take my first flight to Frankfurt, and then FRaNKFuRT-BoSToN. Honestly, I’m excited-nervous. This will be my first time in USA. I’m going to the FAMOS school and workshop. FAMOS is the acronym for Forum for ArcticModelling & Observational Synthesis, and it has become a very important meeting for Arctic Ocean climate.

Tomorrow, the FAMOS School starts. Although I’m not a PhD student, I wanted to attend because the school consists of a series of one-hour lectures given by very good and reputed Arctic Ocean researchers. So, simply I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to listen all of them. On Wednesday, the workshop starts with just a few talks in each topic, but with long time for discussion and poster sessions until Friday when the workshop ends.

Meeting with an old friend

Where I was? What was I doing? Perhaps, a cruise in the Arctic? Perhaps, conferences, meetings? No, that was not the case. It was something much more exciting: I was on maternity leave until mid-June, and that is a time to enjoy with your baby, and simply do nothing else. I could tell you thousands of things about it, but for that there are marvelous maternity blogs. After that, I was quite busy starting to work again, but on the top of that, honestly, I didn’t feel inspired to write in the blog. You can be thinking: ‘Really? Do you need any kind of inspiration to write a science blog?’ And, you’re right in some sense. Science is not art, but still. I’m convinced that I do better Science when I feel inspired, or let’s say really motivated.

¿Dónde he estado y qué he estado haciendo? ¿Quizá una campana en el Ártico? ¿Quizá, conferencias, reuniones? Pues no. Ha sido algo mucho mejor que todo eso: He estado de baja maternal hasta mediados de Junio, y no me he planteado hacer nada más que disfrutar del tiempo con mi hijo. Os podría contar miles de cosas sobre ello, pero para eso hay cientos de blogs maravillosos sobre maternidad. Después, he estado muy ocupada incorporándome al trabajo, pero sobretodo, la verdad, es que no me he encontrado con ganas de escribir en el blog. Podéis pensar: ‘¿De verdad? ¿Hace falta inspiración para escribir un blog sobre ciencia?’ Y en parte no os falta razón. La Ciencia no es arte, pero aun así. Estoy convencida de que hago mejor mi trabajo, que al final es sobre lo que escribo, cuando estoy inspirada, o dejémoslo en muy motivada.

What ever happened to Deep Convection in the Greenland Sea?

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My Wishes for the New Year: Advocating for Science Communication.

Source: Raquel Somavilla

No os dejéis engañar por el título del post: no todos mis deseos para el Año Nuevo giran en torno a la Ciencia. Faltaría más! Sin embargo, en lo que se refiere a ésta justo en el momento preciso del año en el que uno se plantea cuáles son sus buenos propósitos para el año entrante he leído un post en la página Real Climate, de la que ya os he hablado en otros ocasiones, que me ha hecho recapacitar, o quizá recordar, sobre el porqué merece la pena escribir un blog sobre ciencia y porqué continuar con él. 

Don’t be fooled by the title of the post: not all my wishes for the New Year revolve around science. Of course not! However, regarding to Science, at just the right time of the year when one asks what are the resolutions for the coming year, I read a post on Real Climate page that have made me think, or perhaps remember, about why it's worth writing a blog about science and why continue with it.

Last IPCC Report. What we certainly know about climate change.

Cover of the last IPCC report 'Climate Change 2013: The Physical basis'. Source: IPCC

On Friday, the IPCC published its last report. Probably, you have listened or read something about it during these days. What is the IPCC? and (2) What is this report about?

The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. How? The IPCC reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. Thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC, bringing their expertise in the many different disciplines necessary to produce a comprehensive assessment of climate change on a voluntary basis. For the preparation of the last report on ‘Climate Change. The Physical Science Basis’, a total of 259 Lead Authors and 50 Review Editors from 39 countries and more than 600 Contributing Authors from 32 countries contributed. You can download the report here.

According to the information published on this last report, I want to resume some of things that we 'certainly know' about climate change based on what the last decades of observations tell us. Why do I remark the fact that ‘we  certainly know’? Because the report is cautiously written. It means that consensus is necessary among the scientists that contribute to the report when the degree of certainty in key findings is expressed from very low to very high and from exceptionally unlikely to virtually certain. Thus, findings considered virtually certain are supported by data, theory, models, etc. and the scientific consensus. Those are some of these findings.

The deep Greenland Sea is warming faster than the World Ocean

Ayer, en la página de facebook os dejaba el enlace a la nota de prensa que ha publicado el AWI (por si alguien anda perdido, AWI son las siglas del Alfred Wegener Instititute donde trabajo) en alemán a ráiz del interés despertado en distintos medios tras la publicación del artículo 'Increasing amounts of Arctic Ocean deep waters in the Greenland Sea' en la revista Geophysical Research Letters, del que os he hablado (aquí o aquí) . Se me hace raro publicar una especie de entrevista a mí misma en mi blog, pero ahí la tenéis. Creo que os será bastante fácil de entender, y si no ya sabéis click arriba en dejar un comentario y preguntad lo que queráis.

Yesterday on the facebook page, I left you the link to the press release that AWI (in case someone is lost, AWI is the acronym of the Alfred Wegener Institute where I work) has published in German due to the interest shown by different media after the publication of the article 'Increasing Amounts of Arctic Ocean deep waters in the Greenland Sea' in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters. I have previously told about it (here or here). It's kind of strange to post a sort of interview to myself on my blog, but there you have it. I think it will be quite easy to understand, but you know to do in case you have any question: click above 'comentarios' and ask whatever you want.

Las aguas profundas del Mar de Groenlandia se calientan más rápido que el resto del Océano.

Bremerhaven 23 de septiembre 2013. El calentamiento actual de las aguas profundas del Mar de Groenlandia es alrededor de diez veces mayor que el calentamiento medio estimado para el resto del Océano. Los científicos del Instituto Alfred Wegener  -Centro Helmholtz para la Investigación Polar y Marina- han publicado recientemente estos resultados en la revista Geophysical Research Letters. Para su estudio, analizaron los datos de temperatura disponibles desde 1950 hasta 2010 en el Mar de Groenlandia, la cual es una zona oceánica situada justo al sur del Océano Ártico.

The deep Greenland Sea is warming faster than the World Ocean

Bremerhaven 25th September 2013. Recent warming of the Greenland Sea Deep Water is about ten times higher than warming rates estimated for the global ocean. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research recently published these findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. For their study, they analysed  temperature data from 1950 to 2010 in the abyssal Greenland Sea, which is an ocean area located just to the south of the Arctic Ocean.