More settled science: these whirlpools transport vast amount of water and heat vertically in the ocean, somewhat like hurricanes do for the atmosphere. It is fun to imagine “Trenberth’s missing heat” being sucked down one of these.
Via Yahoo News:
Satellites have shown two mysterious ‘black hole’ whirlpools in the South Atlantic ocean – ultra powerful “vortexes” which suck water down into the depths.
Two of the black holes – or “maelstroms” – have been sighted in three months by physicists from Zurich and Miami who have written a new paper using satellite altimetry to look for and identify these oceanic vortices. They write in their paper:
The South Atlantic ocean region in question is bounded by longitudes [14W, 9E] and latitudes [39S, 21S]. Using satellite altimetry data, we seek coherent Lagrangian vortices (black-hole eddies, for short) over a 90-day time period, ranging from 24 November 2006 to 22 February 2007.
The powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’ and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes – which is to say they do exactly the same with water that black holes do with light. The discovery could give new insights into how oceanic currents transport debris and may even have implications for climate change studies.
The maelstroms are detected by their rotating edges, which the scientists found were reliable indicators of the vortex within, based on pioneering research carried out by Stephen Hawking on black holes:
‘Intuitively, one expects that any…vortex in the fluid must contain such a singularity in its interior, just as all black holes are expected to contain Penrose-Hawking singularities. This expectation turns out to be correct’.
The singularities, as they have been termed, last for months at a time, moving across the ocean without interference from other currents. Thus they can transport water of different temperatures and salinity to other areas of the ocean, potentially influencing the regional climate.
Haller and Beron-Vera found that the vortices transported water in a north-western direction 30% faster than had previously been reckoned – at a rate equating to 1.3 million cubic meters of water per second.
In addition, the maelstroms were found to occur four times deeper in the ocean than previously estimated; the study found examples as deep as 2000 meters below the surface.
###
Here is the draft paper, final publication in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
Coherent Lagrangian vortices: The black holes of turbulence
G. Hallery and F. J. Beron-Vera (Received 13 May 2013; revised 18 July 2013; accepted 23 July 2013.)
We introduce a simple variational principle for coherent material vortices in two-dimensional turbulence. Vortex boundaries are sought as closed stationary curves of the averaged Lagrangian strain. Solutions to this problem turn out to be mathematically equivalent to photon spheres around black holes in cosmology. The uidic photon spheres satisfy explicit di erential equations whose outermost limit cycles are optimal Lagrangian vortex boundaries. As an application, we uncover super-coherent material eddies in the SouthAtlantic, which yield speci c Lagrangian transport estimates for Agulhas rings.
In this NASA visualization video (not part of the paper, but related) one can see quasi-permanent eddies throughout the south Atlantic.
Data sources: sea surface height from NASA’s Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite altimeters; gravity from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission; surface wind stress from NASA’s QuikScat mission; sea surface temperature from the NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS; sea ice concentration and velocity from passive microwave radiometers; temperature and salinity profiles from shipborne casts, moorings and the international Argo ocean observation system.
Related articles
- Black Hole Analogue Discovered in South Atlantic Ocean (technologyreview.com)
Anthony,
In a reply to another commenter you said:
“based on water characteristics in the photo, this whirlpool looks to be on a scale of feet (my SWAG is a few tens of feet, maybe 10-30) due to the slope of the interior vortex. Water is heavy, bigger whirlpools such as mentioned in the paper would have less steep funnel slopes.”
Wouldn’t the slope depend on rotational velocity as well as the diameter?
REPLY: yes, but the larger ones in this study have a lower rotational velocity than smaller ones like in the photo – Anthony
Satellite couple with models… Models, the new four letter word in science; when observations do not fit the theory, use models and pretend the output is better than observations.
Gulf stream eddies, giant rotating vortexes are well known and studied. Which is probably why the South Atlantic vortexes are emphasized.
The Gulf Stream vortexes are formed by the movement of the gulf stream current and are either eddies of current, or eddies of the boundary layers between the current and the ocean water it is passing through.
What makes these eddies so well studied is that satellite imagery is sold to subscribers, fishing fleet, charter boat captains, and even wealthier anglers. These anglers from commercial to individuals use the eddy movement with temperature charts to fish specific areas greatly improving their fishing success. Temperature thermoclines of these eddies are also well studied since a fish species temperature preference is a key driver of success.
An eddy may form a whirlpool, but it does not transport surface water down in depth nor does it transport colder water to the surface. If warm eddies spin through cold water then the eddy cools off at all depths. If a cold water eddy spins through warmer water then the eddy warms up.
Like all mechanically caused eddies, as they spin they lose force and eventually cease organized rotation.
Now combine satellite imagery with someone’s notion of what whirlpools do and voila! Whatever they plan to voila’ out of this bizarre notion.
There is one very large rotational structure in the Atlantic that is very long lived; the “Northern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre”. I don’t believe that one spins heat down deep either.
Back holes trap light and compress everything. No matter or light may escape. So in our oceans there are ‘black holes’ that eat water and compress it and never let it escape?
This is the dumbest thing I have heard yet from the chicken little camp.
Larry Ledwick (hotrod) says:
September 6, 2013 at 12:23 am
Hotrod – you’re right.
I was on a ESV in the North Sea, 1984, when we rode a wave that was a conjunction of three storm waves coming together.
All the peaks lined up; so did the troughs.
Our bridge was about 75 feet [23 metres] out of the water, and we slipped down into the forgoing trough and hit a greenie [a seriously b i g wave, landlubbers], which broke across the bridge. Damage to the underbelly – set up by half a metre or so [18″-ish] in places, despite being 40 feet – say 12 metres – above the water.
Our ship could ride the ‘Hundred Year wave’.
Fine.
But that 100 year wave may be 30 metres/100 feet high, and it would be a mile between crests.
We hit a very short sharp sea, with three wave trains coming together for a mile or two.
A couple of bruises, but no serious injuries, as I recall.
Our company naval architects flew out on the first helicopter after the winds eased.
‘What have you done to our ship? It can ride the ‘Hundred Year wave’?!’
We explained about wave-trains – three closely following storms – and, after a couple of hours from – I think – 8 Master Mariners, they said they ‘got it’.
I’ve never been frightened by weather at sea: there is much more extreme weather [and seas and swells] out there than I have experienced.
Yes, I’ve moved three-quarters of a mile in four hours – at half-ahead – in the English Channel, in a ‘Violent Storm’ – Beaufort force eleven.
And those 1200 metres were, effectively, sideways, in a 20,000 ton ship.
I’ve dodged a typhoon off Japan, too.
And the sea is certainly capable of making serious damage to any ship afloat – in the wrong place, and perhaps handled less than optimally.
Enjoy your week-end.
Auto
Based on what writers like Poe and Verne produced and what we know now, I suspect most of their research was from talking to sailors in pubs who knew they had a sucker on the hook.
Well it does give the warmists a (barely believable) explanation (face saver) for how 17 years worth of heat disappeared from the atmosphere and reached the deep oceans
No. These eddies are permanent features. They say nothing at all about climate change.
For them to be used to help Trenberth’s assertion that the heat is being hidden in the depths, it would require that the eddies are a new phenomenon.
They were operating during the last period of rapid warming. Why weren’t they hiding the heat then?
anengineer,
Poe and Verne were fiction writers. I suspect that theyh were far more interested in the most extreme of the sailors tails than the reality.
Somewhat OT, I just returned from voting in the Australian federal election. The Senate ticket had 54 candidates to vote for! What a slog filling that in! Happily, there were two climate sceptics standing and they received my first and second preferences.
@auto 3:10 pm.
Thanks for the story. It reminded me of a story I heard from Dr. Maurice Major, geophysics professor, Colorado School of Mines. He was recounting the story of an Alaskan Fisherman who survived earthquake generated the megatsunami of Lituya Bay, July 10, 1958.
Alaskan commercial fisherman Howard Uhlrich was asked by investigators, “There is evidence on the shoreline that the wave was over 1000 feet tall. What did you see?”
He replied, “1000 feet? #&%^!! It was half way to the Moon!”
>His radio distress call: “Mayday, Mayday – Edrie in Lituya Bay – all hell broke loose – I think we’ve had it – goodby!”
“The powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’ and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes”
The press release writer is an idiot and should be made to wait a table.
OMG I should have written a paper! Sailors have known about hot and cold eddies for a very long time. Seriously contact any weather router. Any sensible navigator uses them when crossing the Gulf stream. They are every where! Sailors use them in the Southern Ocean. CHeck out the Vende Globe race. Satellites pick eddies up and most reasonable depth sounders have thermometers. We pay attention to temperature changes because going through a bad eddie is agony. The boat is moving, working hard but gains very little over the ground..Being stuck in an eddie is a miserable experience..Moving out of an eddie can take place in as little as a couple hundred feet.and mean a completely different sea condition and 180 degree change in current direction..It is possible to see the difference in sea state from the deck of a boat..Becasue of height of eye this change in sea state is over less than a couple of miles. The larger waves are visible on the horizon. Eddie edges also tend to trap Sargasso weed, Current velocities in the eddies can be 4.5 knots!
If you can see them on the satellites, sense them with ship board instruments or the seat of your pants it is appropriate and good seamanship to make use of them.
http://planetsave.com/2012/07/07/phytoplankton-blooms-in-north-atlantic-caused-by-eddies-not-sunlight/
Sea surface height anomalies are a good way to detect eddies.
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/2009JTECHO659.1
http://www.sheekelabaker.com/thesis_sheekela.pdf
http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/181_SR/synth/s_f1.htm
Are we to understand (by analogy) that once water enters one of these vortices it can NEVER escape but must move inexorably towards the singularity? Seems implausable? A poor analogy made for the sensationalist advantage? No? Oh well, here go the oceans. Kiss goodbye to the rising sea levels for ever! Scream with rage Dr. Hansen!
Anthony, for the record, I never thought the tidal whirlpool photo was your editorial contribution, nor do I have a problem with your editorial choices in photos. I think you do an outstanding job, as do your contributors and moderators. I even enjoy the articles by those who have unconventional hypotheses.
I was irritated by Ted’s use of my comment as a springboard to make his silly attack on you, and had written a comment explaining that he had missed my point. But I decided not to post that comment, because it was mostly a spleen vent, that helped no one.
‘Black hole sun, won’t you come…’
Everyone knows that it isn’t the warmer (and less dense a.k.a. Lighter) water that sucks those missing ships into whirlpools, it is of course the giant squid. It turns out the the giant squid is also responsible for the missing heat because every time they come up from the depths to look for another ship to add to their collection, their bodies warm up in the shallow, climate changed surface layers, and when they descend back to the near frozen depths of the ocean, the heat is released. Those familiar with this process call it the Calimari Effect.
DirkH said @ur momisugly September 6, 2013 at 4:57 pm
These many long years ago, I had a business selling my artwork and when we had a particularly good week, I would take the staff out to dinner on Friday evening at my friend Vince Vecchione’s Romana Restaurant. One particular waiter amused us greatly by continually messing up what we ordered. One night, in exasperation, Jimmy Fox asked him: “You wouldn’t be a uni student by any chance, would ya?” A grin spread across the waiter’s face and he said: “Why, how did you ever guess?” He appeared to be genuinely flattered!
Hi Pompous.
I hate to say this but:
According to A. Bolt the Climate Sceptics Party send their first preferences to Labor. I can’t verify this from their web site. You may have just voted Labor. Commiserations.
ghl said @ur momisugly September 6, 2013 at 11:48 pm
But my heart was in the right place 😉 Listen ghl, a vote for Labor is a vote for Tweedle Dumb and a vote for Liberal is a vote for Tweedle Dumber. Both parties are welfare statists.
I read it. I can’t say that I understand it very well. Three reasons I think:
1. The material is very difficult.
2. I’m not all that smart.
3. It’s possibly not all that clearly written.
What I came away with is that there are known to be eddies in marine water flows — closed circulations that can hang together for a long time and can travel. What these folks have done — I think — is proposed a mathematical model that describes how the water in these eddies flows without simply mixing into surrounding areas. Note, that’s describe, not necessarily explain.
Points — which are surely incomplete and likely somewhat wrong.
1. This is not a discovery of a new, previously unknown phenomena — it’s a proposal of math to describe a known phenomenon should anyone feel a need to do so.
2. It’s not particularly about whirlpools. All whirlpools are eddies. Not all eddies are whirlpools. It uses (fictional and actual) whirlpools as an illustration of boundary effects, but the actual eddies spinning off from the Aguhlas Current discussed later are not whirlpools.
3. It’s not about black holes except in that it suggests that the same math used to describe behavior of photons at the black hole event boundary can be used to describe eddy boundaries.(?)
4. It’s not about vertical mixing within eddies. The first sentence of the paper is We introduce a simple variational principle for coherent material vortices in two-dimensio-
nal turbulence. I suppose vertical eddies might/do exist, but I think they probably had their hands full for now with horizontal eddies.
Gene Selkov says: “Do they really need to use some idiot’s blabber about “singularities” as a prop for a report on an *observation*? Do observations need any props?”
Yes because the observations conflict with the models. Therefore they have to come up with some blabber to catch the attention of the climate scientists before they reflexively argue that the observations can’t be correct because they conflict with their hypothesis.
I wonder…
Fluid dynamics where a restriction is creates these vorticies. A restriction can be the passing of two different flows or one flow near a restricting passage under water such as ridges and mountains.
Changing deep water flows would result in the creation of these due to proximity of restrictions. Are our deep water returns becoming greater is size and strength? Another example of our planet cooling.?? Food for thought.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9712016.pdf
This is a short and only mildly difficult discussion of the relationships between acoustic and relativistic Lorentzian geometries.
http://www.ictp.it/about-ictp/media-centre/news/news-archive/2012/7/gravity_workshop.aspx
That is about a workshop where Unruh presented, and this is a bit of his explanation:
You can be forgiven for not knowing who Unruh is, as he isn’t quite as well known as Hawking, but suffice to say he is “kind of a big deal” in the field of black hole kinematics, and his work directly ties into the metaphor used in the story above.
Excellent summary. Except for one ‘slight’ error. It’s ‘sleight of hand’. YCLIU. 😉
What I don’t understand, perhaps the many here who appear conversant with such things can enlighten me, is why when they discuss black holes and say that nothing escapes once inside the event horizon, which is at some point surrounding the black hole, yet they also show two streams of energy exiting. The explanation that these streams of energy from its poles are from the heating up of the matter falling into the the black hole before the event horizon, but that does not seem credible as the matter and energy around the black hole being sucked in is not any different to it, xray and uv.. Is the “event horizon” just an idea which has taken hold because all kinds of fun stuff can be fantasised from it or is it established as a physical reality? – I really can’t tell from the bright eyed pontificating about it.