Physical oceanography

Abstract:

The factors controlling the transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) have recently been a topic of heated debate. At the latitudes of Drake Passage, potential vorticity contours are uninterrupted by coastlines, and large amplitude flows are possible even with weak forcing and dissipation. The relationship between the dynamics of circumpolar currents and inertial recirculations in closed basins is discussed. In previous studies, Sverdrup balance and baroclinic adjustment theories have both been proposed as theories of the ACC transport. These theories predict the circumpolar transport as various simple functions of the surface wind stress. A series of experiments is performed with a simple channel model, with different wind strengths and different idealized basin geometries, to investigate the relationship between wind strenght and circumpolar transport. The results show that baroclinic adjustment theories do predict transport in the special case of a periodic channel with no topographic variations, or when the wind forcing is very weak. More generally, the transport is determined by a complex interplay between wind forcing, eddy fluxes, and topographic effects. There is no support for the idea that Sverdrup balance determines the transport through Drake Passage.

Abstract:

Results are presented from an eddy-resolving primitive equation ocean model to test the hypothesis that geostrophic eddies can be parameterized through a variety of downgradient closures. Time-mean eddy fluxes of temperature, isopycnic thickness, and quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity are diagnosed on level surfaces from 5 years of model data and are spatially correlated with the corresponding time-mean gradients. We find no discernible correlation between the absolute eddy fluxes and mean gradients. However, after decomposing the eddy fluxes into "rotational" and "divergent" components we find a positive correlation between the divergent eddy fluxes and the mean gradients, although the overall correlation coefficients remain small, typically O(0.2). The correlation between the eddy temperature fluxes and mean temperature gradients is positive only over the upper 2 km and is negative at depth, suggesting that the abyssal temperature fluxes are upgradient. In contrast, the correlations between eddy fluxes and mean gradients of isopycnic thickness and potential vorticity are positive over the most of the fluid column. The overall correlations are similar for both thickness and potential vorticity closures. We further decompose the divergent component of the eddy fluxes into components directed perpendicular and parallel to mean contours. We find that both the perpendicular and the parallel components are similar in magnitude. Copyright 2000 by the American Geophysical Union.

Abstract:

A reduced-gravity model is developed to represent the flow of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) over realistic bathymetry in an Atlantic domain. The dynamics are based on the steady, planetary-geostrophic, shallow-water equations, including a linear bottom friction and a uniform diapycnal upwelling through the top of the model layer. The model solutions are broadly consistent with observations of the distribution and transport of AABW. The flows occur predominantly along potential vorticity contours, which are in turn broadly oriented along bathymetric contours. The characteristic weak flow across potential vorticity contours of the Stommel-Arons model is present as a small addition to this stronger forced mode along potential vorticity contours. As a consequence, mass balance is maintained not by hypothesized western boundary currents as in the Stommel-Arons model, but by the interplay between topographic slope currents and interior recirculations. In particular, a transposition is found in the flow of AABW from the western side of the Brazil Basin south of the equator to the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the equator. This is also consistent with an analytical result derived by extending the Parsons mechanism to an abyssal layer overlying arbitrary bathymetry. The authors suggest that the results provide a more convincing zero-order picture than the Stommel-Arons model for the circulation of AABW and perhaps for abyssal water masses in general.