Physical oceanography

Abstract:

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is pivotal for regional and global climate due to its key role in the uptake and redistribution of heat and carbon. Establishing the causes of historical variability in AMOC strength on different timescales can tell us how the circulation may respond to natural and anthropogenic changes at the ocean surface. However, understanding observed AMOC variability is challenging because the circulation is influenced by multiple factors that co-vary and whose overlapping impacts persist for years. Here we reconstruct and unambiguously attribute intermonthly and interannual AMOC variability at two observational arrays to the recent history of surface wind stress, temperature and salinity. We use a state-of-the-art technique that computes space- and time-varying sensitivity patterns of the AMOC strength with respect to multiple surface properties from a numerical ocean circulation model constrained by observations. While, on interannual timescales, AMOC variability at 26° N is overwhelmingly dominated by a linear response to local wind stress, overturning variability at subpolar latitudes is generated by the combined effects of wind stress and surface buoyancy anomalies. Our analysis provides a quantitative attribution of subpolar AMOC variability to temperature, salinity and wind anomalies at the ocean surface.

Abstract:

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Recent studies show that the western boundary acts as a ‘graveyard’ for westward-propagating ocean eddies. However, how the eddy energy incident on the western boundary is dissipated remains unclear. Here we investigate the energetics of eddy-western boundary interaction using an idealised MIT ocean circulation model with a spatially variable grid resolution. Four types of model experiments are conducted: (1) single eddy cases, (2) a sea of random eddies, (3) with a smooth topography and (4) with a rough topography. We find significant dissipation of incident eddy energy at the western boundary, regardless of whether the model topography at the western boundary is smooth or rough. However, in the presence of rough topography, not only the eddy energy dissipation rate is enhanced, but more importantly, the leading process for removing eddy energy in the model switches from bottom frictional drag as in the case of smooth topography to viscous dissipation in the ocean interior above the rough topography. Further analysis shows that the enhanced eddy energy dissipation in the experiment with rough topography is associated with greater anticyclonic-ageostrophic instability (AAI), possibly as a result of lee wave generation and non-propagating form drag effect.</jats:p>