Physical oceanography

Abstract:

A family of eddy closures is studied that flux potential vorticity down-gradient and solve an explicit budget for the eddy energy, following the approach developed by Eden and Greatbatch (2008, Ocean Modelling). The aim of this manuscript is to demonstrate that when energy conservation is satisfied in this manner, the growth or decay of the parameterized eddy energy relates naturally to the instability or stability of the flow as described by Arnold's first stability theorem. The resultant family of eddy closures therefore possesses some of the ingredients necessary to parameterize the gross effects of eddies in both forced-dissipative and freely-decaying turbulence. These ideas are illustrated through their application to idealized, barotropic wind-driven gyres in which the maximum eddy energy occurs within the viscous boundary layers and separated western boundary currents, and to freely-decaying turbulence in a closed barotropic basin in which inertial Fofonoff gyres emerge as the long-time solution. The result that these eddy closures preserve the relation between the growth or decay of eddy energy and the instability or stability of the flow provides further support for their use in ocean general circulation models. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract:

The temporal evolution of the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the subtropical North Atlantic is affected by both remotely forced, basin-scale meridionally coherent, climate-relevant transport anomalies, such as changes in high-latitude deep water formation rates, and locally forced transport anomalies, such as eddies or Rossby waves, possibly associated with small meridional coherence scales, which can be considered as noise. The focus of this paper is on the extent to which local eddies and Rossby waves when impinging on the western boundary of the Atlantic affect the temporal variability of the AMOC at 26.5°N. Continuous estimates of the AMOC at this latitude have been made since April 2004 by combining the Florida Current, Ekman, and midocean transports with the latter obtained from continuous density measurements between the coasts of the Bahamas and Morocco, representing, respectively, the western and eastern boundaries of the Atlantic at this latitude. Within 100km of the western boundary there is a threefold decrease in sea surface height variability toward the boundary, observed in both dynamic heights from in situ density measurements and altimetric heights. As a consequence, the basinwide zonally integrated upper midocean transport shallower than 1000m-as ob-served continuously between April 2004 and October 2006-varies by only 3.0 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s-1) RMS. Instead, upper midocean transports integrated from western boundary stations 16, 40, and 500km offshore to the eastern boundary vary by 3.6, 6.0, and 10.7 Sv RMS, respectively. The reduction in eddy energy toward the western boundary is reproduced in a nonlinear reduced-gravity model suggesting that boundary-trapped waves may account for the observed decline in variability in the coastal zone because they provide a mechanism for the fast equatorward export of transport anomalies associated with eddies impinging on the western boundary. An analytical model of linear Rossby waves suggests a simple scaling for the reduction in thermocline thickness variability toward the boundary. Physically, the reduction in am-plitude is understood as along-boundary pressure gradients accelerating the fluid and rapidly propagating pressure anomalies along the boundary. The results suggest that the local eddy field does not dominate upper midocean transport or AMOC variability at 26.5°N on interannual to decadal time scales. © 2009 American Meteorological Society.

Abstract:

The variability of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the upper tropical Atlantic basin is investigated using a reduced-gravity model in a simplified domain. Four sets of idealized numerical experiments are performed: (i) switch-on of the MOC until a fixed value when a constant northward flow is applied along the western boundary; (ii) MOC with a variable flow; (iii) MOC in a quasi-steady flow; and (iv) shutdown of the MOC in the Northern Hemisphere. Results from experiments (i) show that eddies are generated at the equatorial region by shear instability and detached northward; eddies are responsible for an enhancement of the mean flow and the variability of the MOC. Results from experiments (ii) show a transitional behavior of the MOC related to the eddy generation in interannual-decadal time scales as the Reynolds number varies due to the variations in the MOC. In experiments (iii), a critical Reynolds number Rec around 30 is found, above which eddies are generated. Experiments (iv) demonstrate that even after the collapse of MOC in the Northern Hemisphere, eddies can still be generated and carry energy across the equator into the Northern Hemisphere; these eddies act to attenuate the impact of the MOC shutdown on short time scales. The results described here may be particularly pertinent to ocean general circulation models in which the Reynolds number lies close to the bifurcation point separating the laminar and turbulent regimes. © 2009 American Meteorological Society.

Abstract:

The parameterization of geostrophic eddies represents a large sink of energy in most ocean models, yet the ultimate fate of this eddy energy in the ocean remains unclear. The authors conjecture that a significant fraction of the eddy energy may be transferred to internal lee waves and oscillations over rough bottom topography, leading to bottom-enhanced diapycnal mixing. A range of circumstantial evidence in support of this conjecture is presented and discussed. The authors further propose a modification to the Gent and McWilliams eddy parameterization to account for the bottom-enhanced diapycnal mixing. © 2008 American Meteorological Society.

Abstract:

This chapter summarizes our present knowledge of Gulf Stream separation in numerical ocean models. High horizontal resolution ocean numerical models are now capable of simulating quite realistically the separation and path of the Gulf Stream, and significant advances have been made in the last decade in our understanding of western boundary current separation. However, the Gulf Stream separation in numerical models continues to be a challenge because it remains very sensitive to the choices made for subgrid scale parameterizations.