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Recent studies have found that equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) variability may be influencing tropical Indian Ocean climate (Kucharski 2009, Wang 2009). Due to the economic and social impact of tropical cyclones, it is important to investigate how an Atlantic-Indian Ocean connection may be affecting tropical cyclone behavior in the southern Indian Ocean. In this study, the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrAC) tropical cyclone database is used to derive metrics of tropical cyclone behavior, which are then compared with indices of tropical Atlantic SST variability representing Atlantic Niño, and Benguela Niño events. Changes in tropical Atlantic SSTs are found to coincide with significant differences in tropical cyclone activity for portions of the southern Indian Ocean. In addition, for these same regions, tropical Atlantic SST variability is associated with changes in large-scale atmospheric conditions, including steering flow, low level vorticity, and humidity, typically associated with tropical cyclogenesis, and tropical cyclone track. The changes in steering flow related to both indices of Atlantic SST anomaly are reproduced by an atmospheric model. The changes in steering flow are also found to be linked to changes in TC translational velocity, and TC tracking. These findings indicate a possible link between tropical Atlantic conditions and cyclone activity in the Indian Ocean mediated through a teleconnection between tropical Atlantic SSTs and large scale atmospheric conditions over the southern Indian Ocean. The teleconnection related to the Benguela Niño region of SST variability was found to consist of a Rossby wave initiated off the coast of South America, and propagating into the Indian Ocean, thereby influencing several atmospheric variables, including steering flow. The teleconnection related to the Atlantic Niño region of SST variability was not well defined, although there was some evidence of a Walker circulation anomaly extending from the equatorial Atlantic over the continent of Africa, and influencing SIO steering flow. / Graduation date: 2012

No description available.

Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "February 2011." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-48). / Trichodesmium, a genus of diazotrophic cyanobacteria, is an important contributor to the marine nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycles. The extent to which Trichodesmium dinitrogen (N2) fixation contributes to the marine N cycle has been modeled based on abundance data and rate estimates from surface populations. However, recent data show that Trichodesmium populations have a broad vertical distribution. The presence of previously unaccounted for subsurface populations suggests that past estimates of the contribution of new N by Trichodesmium to the North Atlantic may be artificially low. Herein, culture and field studies were combined to examine trends in N2 fixation in discrete surface and subsurface Trichodesmium populations in the western North Atlantic. Surface populations were dominated by the raft colony morphology of Trichodesmium and surface N2 fixation rates ranged from (33 to 156 μmol h-1 mol C-1). Subsurface populations were dominated by the puff colony morphology. Subsurface N2 fixation was typically detectable, but consistently lower than surface population rates (9 to 88 μmol h-1 mol C-1). In an analysis of the entire field dataset, N2 fixation rates varied non-linearly as a function of in situ irradiance. This trend in N2 fixation versus in situ irradiance is consistent with field and culture observations in the literature (Bell et al., 2005; Capone et al., 2005), however other models that predict N2 fixation based on light predict higher subsurface N2 fixation than what was detected in this study. In culture, N2 fixation in Trichodesmium was proportional to light level over the range of irradiances tested (10 to 70 μmol quanta m-2 s-1) and over long and short time scales, suggesting subtle changes in the light field could depress subsurface N2 fixation. Since the subsurface samples were dominated by the puff colony morphology, it is unclear if the subsurface N2 fixation rates are the result of the in / by Abigail Heithoff. / S.M.

Thesis. 1977. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Meteorology. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography : p. 194-197. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1980. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 156-158. / by Nancy Amanda Bray. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1980. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Includes bibliographies. / by Alan Dana Chave. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1980. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography : leaves 122-129. / by Dean Howard Roemmich. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science, 1979. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography: leaves 114-116. / by Daniel Allen Galson. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND LINDGREN. / Bibliography: leaves 118-120. / by Randall J. Patton. / M.S.