Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades

In most coastal oceans, the impacts of global warming on season duration and timing of seasonal transitions remain unknown. To mirror the reality of the ongoing climate change, the summer and winter seasons are redefined using the local water temperature thresholds in the Bohai Sea. Then the phase v...

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Main Authors: Chengyi Yuan, Xiaodi Kuang, Jingbo Xu, Ruopeng Li, Chen Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Marine Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1095792/full
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author Chengyi Yuan
Xiaodi Kuang
Jingbo Xu
Ruopeng Li
Chen Wang
author_facet Chengyi Yuan
Xiaodi Kuang
Jingbo Xu
Ruopeng Li
Chen Wang
author_sort Chengyi Yuan
collection DOAJ
description In most coastal oceans, the impacts of global warming on season duration and timing of seasonal transitions remain unknown. To mirror the reality of the ongoing climate change, the summer and winter seasons are redefined using the local water temperature thresholds in the Bohai Sea. Then the phase variations of these seasons are quantified using the duration and transition timing indices, including the duration (DUR), onset (ONS), and withdrawal (WIT) indices derived from the OSTIA SST dataset at a very high resolution (0.05°). During the last four decades (1982–2019), secular trends of summer indices extracted by the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method reveal that the summer DUR has an accumulated increase of about 17 days (4.5 days decade-1), which is primarily induced by the phase advance of the summer ONS by about 16 days (4.2 days decade-1). Spatial features of the duration and timing indices demonstrate that the lengthening of summer DUR and the phase advance of summer ONS have significantly enhanced in the shallow regions, due to the limited thermal inertia and the shorter period of the ocean’s memory. In contrast, the secular trend of winter DUR exhibits an accumulated shortening of about 18 days (4.8 days decade-1), which is induced by a moderately delayed winter ONS of 6 days (1.6 days decade-1) and a significantly advanced winter WIT of 12 days (3.2 days decade-1). The potential linkage between the phase variations in the oceanic seasonal cycle and those of the atmospheric forcing was investigated by analyzing both the interannual variability and the secular trend. Over the analysis period, the secular trend of an earlier summer ONS is related to a total reduction of cloud cover by 30% of its climatological mean and an increase of incoming solar radiation of 10 W m-2 month-1 in the late spring. Thus, our results highlight the influence of cloud cover in addition to wind speed on the temporal variations of season transition timing.
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spelling doaj.art-b7493f8665a14189bb5954c927ca9c062023-03-15T05:37:57ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452023-03-011010.3389/fmars.2023.10957921095792Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decadesChengyi Yuan0Xiaodi Kuang1Jingbo Xu2Ruopeng Li3Chen Wang4Department of Marine Technology, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, ChinaNational Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Marine Technology, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, ChinaDepartment of Marine Technology, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, ChinaDepartment of Marine Technology, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, ChinaIn most coastal oceans, the impacts of global warming on season duration and timing of seasonal transitions remain unknown. To mirror the reality of the ongoing climate change, the summer and winter seasons are redefined using the local water temperature thresholds in the Bohai Sea. Then the phase variations of these seasons are quantified using the duration and transition timing indices, including the duration (DUR), onset (ONS), and withdrawal (WIT) indices derived from the OSTIA SST dataset at a very high resolution (0.05°). During the last four decades (1982–2019), secular trends of summer indices extracted by the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method reveal that the summer DUR has an accumulated increase of about 17 days (4.5 days decade-1), which is primarily induced by the phase advance of the summer ONS by about 16 days (4.2 days decade-1). Spatial features of the duration and timing indices demonstrate that the lengthening of summer DUR and the phase advance of summer ONS have significantly enhanced in the shallow regions, due to the limited thermal inertia and the shorter period of the ocean’s memory. In contrast, the secular trend of winter DUR exhibits an accumulated shortening of about 18 days (4.8 days decade-1), which is induced by a moderately delayed winter ONS of 6 days (1.6 days decade-1) and a significantly advanced winter WIT of 12 days (3.2 days decade-1). The potential linkage between the phase variations in the oceanic seasonal cycle and those of the atmospheric forcing was investigated by analyzing both the interannual variability and the secular trend. Over the analysis period, the secular trend of an earlier summer ONS is related to a total reduction of cloud cover by 30% of its climatological mean and an increase of incoming solar radiation of 10 W m-2 month-1 in the late spring. Thus, our results highlight the influence of cloud cover in addition to wind speed on the temporal variations of season transition timing.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1095792/fullphase variationseasonal cyclesea surface temperature (SST)secular trendensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)cloud cover
spellingShingle Chengyi Yuan
Xiaodi Kuang
Jingbo Xu
Ruopeng Li
Chen Wang
Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
Frontiers in Marine Science
phase variation
seasonal cycle
sea surface temperature (SST)
secular trend
ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)
cloud cover
title Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
title_full Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
title_fullStr Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
title_full_unstemmed Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
title_short Phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the Bohai Sea during the last four decades
title_sort phase variations of the summer and winter seasons in the bohai sea during the last four decades
topic phase variation
seasonal cycle
sea surface temperature (SST)
secular trend
ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)
cloud cover
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1095792/full
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