David Marshall

Abstract:

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Downstream of Drake Passage, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) veers abruptly northward along the continental slope of South America. This spins down the ACC, akin to the western boundary currents of ocean gyres. During this northward excursion, the mean potential vorticity (PV) increases dramatically (decreases in magnitude) by up to a factor of two along mean geostrophic streamlines on mid-depth buoyancy surfaces. This increase is driven by drag near the continental slope, or by breaking eddies further offshore, and is balanced by a remarkably steady, eddy-driven decrease of mean PV along these northern circumpolar streamlines in the open ocean. We show how two related eddy processes that are fundamental to ACC dynamics — poleward buoyancy fluxes and downward fluxes of eastward momentum — are also concomitant with materially forcing PV to increase on the northern flank of a jet at mid-depth, and decrease on the southern flank. For eddies to drive the required mean PV decrease along northern streamlines, the ACC merges with the subtropical gyres to the north, so these streamlines inhabit the southern flanks of the combined ACC-gyre jets. We support these ideas by analyzing the time-mean PV and its budget along time-mean geostrophic streamlines in the Southern Ocean State Estimate. Our averaging formalism is Eulerian, to match the model’s numerics. The Thickness Weighted Average is preferable, but its PV budget cannot be balanced using Eulerian 5-day averaged diagnostics, primarily because the z-level buoyancy and continuity equations’ delicate balances are destroyed upon transformation into the buoyancy-coordinate thickness equation.</jats:p>

Abstract:

The upper limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation draws waters with negative potential vorticity from the southern hemisphere into the northern hemisphere. The North Brazil Current is one of the cross-equatorial pathways in which this occurs: upon crossing the equator, fluid parcels must modify their potential vorticity to render them stable to symmetric instability and to merge smoothly with the ocean interior. In this work a linear stability analysis is performed on an idealized western boundary current, dynamically similar to the North Brazil Current, to identify features which are indicative of symmetric instability. Simple two-dimensional numerical models are used to verify the results of the stability analysis. The two-dimensional models and linear stability theory show that symmetric instability in meridional flows does not change when the non-traditional component of the Coriolis force is included, unlike in zonal flows. Idealized three-dimensional numerical models show anti-cyclonic barotropic eddies being spun off as the western boundary current crosses the equator. These eddies become symmetrically unstable \addd{a few degrees} north of the equator, and their PV is set to zero through the action of the instability. The instability is found to have a clear fingerprint in the spatial Fourier transform of the vertical kinetic energy. An analysis of the water mass formation rates suggest that symmetric instability has a minimal effect on water mass transformation in the model calculations; however, this may be the result of unresolved dynamics, such as secondary Kelvin Helmholtz instabilities, which are important in diabatic transformation.