Showing papers in "Journal of Physical Oceanography in 1998"

Geographical Variability of the First Baroclinic Rossby Radius of Deformation

Abstract: Global 1 83 18 climatologies of the first baroclinic gravity-wave phase speed c1 and the Rossby radius of deformation l1 are computed from climatological average temperature and salinity profiles. These new atlases are compared with previously published 5 83 58 coarse resolution maps of l1 for the Northern Hemisphere and the South Atlantic and with a 1 83 18 fine-resolution map of c1 for the tropical Pacific. It is concluded that the methods used in these earlier estimates yield values that are biased systematically low by 5%‐15% owing to seemingly minor computational errors. Geographical variations in the new high-resolution maps of c1 and l1 are discussed in terms of a WKB approximation that elucidates the effects of earth rotation, stratification, and water depth on these quantities. It is shown that the effects of temporal variations of the stratification can be neglected in the estimation of c1 and l1 at any particular location in the World Ocean. This is rationalized from consideration of the WKB approximation.

The Gent–McWilliams Skew Flux

Abstract: This paper formulates tracer stirring arising from the Gent‐McWilliams (GM) eddy-induced transport in terms of a skew-diffusive flux. A skew-diffusive tracer flux is directed normal to the tracer gradient, which is in contrast to a diffusive tracer flux directed down the tracer gradient. Analysis of the GM skew flux provides an understanding of the physical mechanisms prescribed by GM stirring, which is complementary to the more familiar advective flux perspective. Additionally, it unifies the tracer mixing operators arising from Redi isoneutral diffusion and GM stirring. This perspective allows for a computationally efficient and simple manner in which to implement the GM closure in z-coordinate models. With this approach, no more computation is necessary than when using isoneutral diffusion alone. Additionally, the numerical realization of the skew flux is significantly smoother than the advective flux. The reason is that to compute the skew flux, no gradient of the diffusivity or isoneutral slope is taken, whereas such a gradient is needed for computing the advective flux. The skew-flux formulation also exposes a striking cancellation of terms that results when the GM diffusion coefficient is identical to the Redi isoneutral diffusion coefficient. For this case, the horizontal components to the tracer flux are aligned down the horizontal tracer gradient, and the resulting computational cost of Redi diffusion plus GM skew diffusion is roughly half that needed for Redi diffusion alone.

On the Ocean’s Large-Scale Circulation near the Limit of No Vertical Mixing

Abstract: By convention, the ocean’s large-scale circulation is assumed to be a thermohaline overturning driven by the addition and extraction of buoyancy at the surface and vertical mixing in the interior. Previous work suggests that the overturning should die out as vertical mixing rates are reduced to zero. In this paper, a formal energy analysis is applied to a series of ocean general circulation models to evaluate changes in the large-scale circulation over a range of vertical mixing rates. Two different model configurations are used. One has an open zonal channel and an Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The other configuration does not. The authors find that a vigorous large-scale circulation persists at the limit of no mixing in the model with a wind-driven ACC. A wind-powered overturning circulation linked to the ACC can exist without vertical mixing and without much energy input from surface buoyancy forces.

The Work Done by the Wind on the Oceanic General Circulation

Abstract: A new estimate is made using altimeter data of the rate at which the wind works on the oceanic general circulation. The value of about 1 TW is lower than previously estimated and is dominated by the work done by the mean zonal wind in the Southern Ocean. The meridional component of the mean wind contributes primarily in the eastern upwelling regions of the ocean. Fluctuating component contributions are small. A comparison with the results of a numerical model produces both the same total work as well as the same general geographical patterns but with detailed differences. Both observations and model show that the subtropical gyres are regions where the atmosphere is braking the ocean circulation. The input of wind energy is shown to be qualitatively consistent with estimates of the rates of decay of barotropic and baroclinic mesoscale variability. If most of the energy input into the Southern Ocean is dissipated there, this region could be a dominant factor in mixing the global ocean.

A New Sea Spray Generation Function for Wind Speeds up to 32 m s−1

Abstract: The sea spray generation function quantifies the rate at which spray droplets of a given size are produced at the sea surface. As such, it is important in studies of the marine aerosol and its optical properties and in understanding the role that sea spray plays in transferring heat and moisture across the air–sea interface. The emphasis here is on this latter topic, where uncertainty over the spray generation function, especially in high winds, is a major obstacle. This paper surveys the spray generation functions available in the literature and, on theoretical grounds, focuses on one by M. H. Smith et al. that has some desirable properties but does not cover a wide enough droplet size range to be immediately useful for quantifying spray heat transfer. With reasonable modifications and extrapolations, however, the paper casts the Smith function into a new form that can be used to predict the production of sea spray droplets with radii from 2 to 500 μm for 10-m winds from 0 to 32.5 m s−1. The pap...

Gravitational, Symmetric, and Baroclinic Instability of the Ocean Mixed Layer

Abstract: A hierarchy of hydrodynamical instabilities controlling the transfer of buoyancy through the oceanic mixed layer is reviewed. If a resting ocean of horizontally uniform stratification is subject to spatially uniform buoyancy loss at the sea surface, then gravitational instability ensues in which buoyancy is drawn from depth by upright convection. But if spatial inhomogeneities in the ambient stratification or the forcing are present (as always exist in nature), then horizontal density gradients will be induced and, within a rotation period, horizontal currents in thermal-wind balance with those gradients will be set up within the mixed layer. There are two important consequences on the convective process: Upright convection will become modified by the presence of the thermal wind shear; fluid parcels are exchanged not along vertical paths but, rather, along slanting paths in symmetric instability. Theoretical considerations suggest that this slantwise convection sets the potential vorticity of th...

An OGCM Study for the TOGA Decade. Part I: Role of Salinity in the Physics of the Western Pacific Fresh Pool

Abstract: A set of numerical simulations of the tropical Pacific Ocean during the 1985–94 decade is used to investigate the effects of haline stratification on the low-frequency equilibrium of the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment region. The simulated sea surface salinity structure is found to be quite sensitive to the freshwater forcing and to the other fluxes. Despite this sensitivity, several robust features are found in the model. Sensitivity experiments illustrate the important role of the haline stratification in the western Pacific. This stratification is the result of a balance between precipitations and entrainment of subsurface saltier water. It inhibits the downward penetration of turbulent kinetic energy. This results notably in a trapping of the westerly wind burst momentum in the surface layer, giving rise to strong fresh equatorial jets. The model is able to produce a barrier layer between 5°N and 10°S in the western Pacific and under the intertropical convergence zone (as in the...

On Eddy Characteristics, Eddy Transports, and Mean Flow Properties

Abstract: Estimates of eddy energy and eddy scales obtained previously from TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter data are interpreted in the context of a baroclinically unstable flow field. From the observations an integral timescale Talt can be defined that—combined with estimates of the eddy kinetic energy—sets a mixing length scale. Results are compared with theories of a baroclinically unstable flow field. For such conditions, the Eady theory predicts a timescale Tbc = Ri/f from the mean-flow Richardson number Ri, which shows some qualitative agreement with T/P results in terms of a geographical distribution. A factor of 2 difference between the timescales can be explained in terms of a systematic difference between the specific definitions of scale estimates. Although transfer length and velocity scales emerging out of scaling arguments lack resemblance with observations, a transfer length scale based on Tbc and the observed eddy kinetic energy is strikingly consistent with observed eddy scales. Primarily i...

Mixing in the Romanche Fracture Zone

Abstract: The Romanche Fracture Zone is a major gap in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the equator, which is deep enough to allow significant eastward flows of Antarctic Bottom Water from the Brazil Basin to the Sierra Leone and Guinea Abyssal Plains. While flowing through the Romanche Fracture Zone, bottom-water properties are strongly modified due to intense vertical mixing. The diapycnal mixing coefficient in the bottom water of the Romanche Fracture Zone is estimated by using the finestructure of CTD profiles, the microstructure of high-resolution profiler data, and by constructing a heat budget from current meter data. The finestructure of density profiles is described using the Thorpe scalesLT. It is shown from microstructure data taken in the bottom water that the Ozmidov scale LO is related to LT by the linear relationship LO 5 0.95LT, similar to other studies, which allows an estimate of the diapycnal mixing coefficient using the Osborn relation. The Thorpe scale and the diapycnal mixing coefficient estimates show enhanced mixing downstream (eastward) of the main sill of the Romanche Fracture Zone. In this region, a mean diapycnal mixing coefficient of about 1000 3 1024 m2 s21 is found for the bottom water. Estimates of cross-isothermal mixing coefficient derived from the heat budgets constructed downstream of the current meter arrays deployed in the Romanche Fracture Zone and the nearby Chain Fracture Zone are in agreement with the finestructure estimates of the diapycnal mixing coefficient within the Romanche Fracture Zone. Although the two fracture zones occupy only 0.4% of the area covered by the Sierra Leone and Guinea Abyssal Plains, the diffusive heat fluxes across the 1.4 8C isotherm in the Romanche and Chain Fracture Zones are half that found over the abyssal plains across the 1.88C isotherm, emphasizing the role of these passages for bottom-water property modifications.

Isoneutral Diffusion in a z-Coordinate Ocean Model

Abstract: This paper considers the requirements that must be satisfied in order to provide a stable and physically based isoneutral tracer diffusion scheme in a z-coordinate ocean model. Two properties are emphasized: 1) downgradient orientation of the diffusive fluxes along the neutral directions and 2) zero isoneutral diffusive flux of locally referenced potential density. It is shown that the Cox diffusion scheme does not respect either of these properties, which provides an explanation for the necessity to add a nontrivial background horizontal diffusion to that scheme. A new isoneutral diffusion scheme is proposed that aims to satisfy the stated properties and is found to require no horizontal background diffusion.

Annual Cycle and Variability of the North Brazil Current

Abstract: Current meter observations from an array of three subsurface moorings located on the Brazil continental slope near 4°N are used to describe the annual cycle and low-frequency variability of the North Brazil Current (NBC). The moored array was deployed from September 1989 to January 1991, with further extension of the shallowest mooring, located over the 500-m isobath near the axis of the NBC, through September 1991. Moored current measurements were also obtained over the adjacent shelf for a limited time between February and May 1990. The NBC has a large annual cycle at this latitude, ranging from a maximum transport of 36 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) in July–August to a minimum of 13 Sv in April–May, with an annual mean transport of approximately 26 Sv. The mean transport is dominated by flow in the upper 150 m, and the seasonal cycle is contained almost entirely in the top 300 m. Transport over the continental shelf is 3–5 Sv and appears to be fairly constant throughout the year, based on the available...

Wind Stress Measurements from the Open Ocean Corrected for Airflow Distortion by the Ship

Abstract: A large dataset of wind stress estimates, covering a wide range of wind speed and stability conditions, was obtained during three cruises of the RRS Discovery in the Southern Ocean. These data were used by Yelland and Taylor to determine the relationship between 10-m height, neutral stability values for the drag coefficient, and the wind speed, and to devise a new formulation for the nondimensional dissipation function under diabatic conditions. These results have been reevaluated allowing for the airflow distortion caused by the ship. The acceleration and vertical displacement of the flow have been modeled in three dimensions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD modeling was tested, first by comparison with wind tunnel measurements on models of two Canadian research ships and second, by analysis of data from four anemometers on the foremast of the RRS Charles Darwin. Originally, the four anemometers gave drag coefficient values that differed by up to 20% from one to another and were all unexpectedly high. The CFD results showed that the airflow had been decelerated by 4%‐14% and displaced vertically by about 1 m. These effects caused the original drag coefficient results to be overestimated by up to 60%. After correcting for flow distortion effects, the results from the different anemometers became consistent, which gave confidence in the quantitative CFD-derived corrections. The CFD modeling showed that the anemometer position on the RRS Discovery was much less affected by airflow distortion. For a given wind speed the CFD corrections reduced the drag coefficient by about 6%. The resulting mean drag coefficient to wind speed relationship confirmed that suggested by Smith from a more limited set of open ocean data. The effects of flow distortion are sensitive to changes in the relative wind direction. It is shown that much of the scatter in drag coefficient estimates may be due to variations in airflow distortion rather than to the effect of changing sea states. The Discovery wind stress data is examined for evidence of a sea-state dependence: none is found. It is concluded that a wave-age-dependent wind stress formulation is not applicable to open ocean conditions.

On the Dependence of Sea Surface Roughness on Wind Waves

Abstract: The influence of wind waves on the momentum transfer (wind stress) between the atmosphere and sea surface was studied using new measured data from the RASEX experiment and other datasets compiled by Donelan et al. Results of the data analysis indicate that errors in wind friction velocity u∗ of about ±10% make it difficult to conclude on the trend in zch using measured data from a particular dataset. This problem is solved by combining different field data together. This gives a trend of decreasing zch with wave age, expressed as: zch = 1.89(cp/u∗)−1.59. Furthermore, it is shown that calculations of the wind friction velocities using the wave-spectra-dependent expression of Hansen and Larsen agrees quite well with measured values during RASEX. It also gives a trend in Charnock parameter consistent with that found by combining the field data. Last, calculations using a constant Charnock parameter (0.018) also give very good results for the wind friction velocities at the RASEX site.

An OGCM Study for the TOGA Decade. Part II: Barrier-Layer Formation and Variability

Abstract: A set of OGCM experiments is used to investigate the processes responsible for barrier layer (BL) formation in the Pacific Ocean. As in existing datasets, BL appears in the present experiments both in the western Pacific (WP) and under the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). In the WP, the BL displays a strong interannual variability linked to ENSO variability, in qualitative agreement with the observations of Ando and McPhaden. In both the equatorial and 3°–8°S bands, a subduction process is responsible for BL formation. In the equatorial region, it results from a strong downwelling near the salinity front created by convergence between central Pacific salty water and WP freshwater. In the southern region, the subduction of the South Equatorial Current salty water involves mainly mixed layer thinning due to the freshening of the surface layer by rain and equatorial divergence of water from the eastward fresh equatorial jets. The formation of BL under the ITCZ is found to be mostly related to ...

Transports and Pathways of the Upper-Layer Circulation in the Western Tropical Atlantic

Abstract: The mean warm water transfer toward the equator along the western boundary of the South Atlantic is investigated, based on a number of ship surveys carried out during 1990–96 with CTD water mass observations and current profiling by shipboard and lowered (with the CTD/rosette) acoustic Doppler current profiler and with Pegasus current profiler. The bulk of the northward warm water flow follows the coast in the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) from latitudes south of 10°S, carrying 23 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) above 1000 m. Out of this, 16 Sv are waters warmer than 7°C that form the source waters of the Florida Current. Zonal inflow from the east by the South Equatorial Current enters the western boundary system dominantly north of 5°S, adding transport northwest of Cape San Roque, and transforming the NBUC along its way toward the equator into a surface-intensified current, the North Brazil Current (NBC). From the combination of moored arrays and shipboard sections just north of the equator along 44°W, the mean NBC transport was determined at 35 Sv with a small seasonal cycle amplitude of only about 3 Sv. The reason for the much larger near-equatorial northward warm water boundary current than what would be required to carry the northward heat transport are recirculations by the zonal current system and the existence of the shallow South Atlantic tropical–subtropical cell (STC). The STC connects the subduction zones of the eastern subtropics of both hemispheres via equatorward boundary undercurrents with the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), and the return flow is through upwelling and poleward Ekman transport. The persistent existence of a set of eastward thermocline and intermediate countercurrents on both sides of the equator was confirmed that recurred throughout the observations and carry ventilated waters from the boundary regime into the tropical interior. A strong westward current underneath the EUC, the Equatorial Intermediate Current, returns low-oxygen water westward. Consistent evidence for the existence of a seasonal variation in the warm water flow south of the equator could not be established, whereas significant seasonal variability of the boundary regime occurs north of the equator: northwestward alongshore throughflow of about 10 Sv of waters with properties from the Southern Hemisphere was found along the Guiana boundary in boreal spring when the North Equatorial Countercurrent is absent or even flowing westward, whereas during June–January the upper NBC is known to connect with the eastward North Equatorial Countercurrent through a retroflection zone that seasonally migrates up and down the coast and spawns eddies. The equatorial zone thus acts as a buffer and transformation zone for cross-equatorial exchanges, but knowledge of the detailed pathways in the interior including the involved diapycnal exchanges is still a problem.

The Formation of Estuarine Turbidity Maxima Due to Density Effects in the Salt Wedge. A Hydrodynamic Process Study

Abstract: By means of a numerical model of an idealized flat-bottom estuary, the paper studies the hydrodynamic control of the turbidity zone by the combined effect of the salt wedge and tidal movements. The model is of two- dimensional (x, z) finite-difference type with high resolution in time and space. It computes momentum, surface elevation, salinity, suspended particulate matter (SPM), turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate as prognostic state variables. At the seaward boundary a tidal forcing is applied. At the landward boundary a weir is situated where a constant freshwater discharge is prescribed. The initial SPM concentration is horizontally homogeneous. After simulating a few tidal periods the model results exhibit the evolution of a stable SPM peak (the estuarine turbidity maximum or ETM) at the tip of the salt wedge. An inspection of the tidal mean velocity profiles around the ETM shows that this trapping of SPM is due to a residual near-bottom upstream current in the region of the salt...

The Seasonal Heat Budget of the North Pacific: Net Heat Flux and Heat Storage Rates (1950–1990)

Abstract: A new estimate of the heat budget for the North Pacific Ocean is presented in this paper. The seasonal net heat flux and heat storage rates were calculated for the North Pacific Ocean from 1950 to 1990 on a spatial resolution of 5° × 5°. Temperature profiles from the National Ocean Data Center were used to calculate the heat storage rates. Satellite remotely sensed solar irradiance and ship marine weather reports from the Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set were used to calculate the net surface heat flux. Heat storage rates were calculated as the time rate of change of the heat content integrated from the surface down to the isotherm that was 1°C less than the coldest locally observed wintertime sea surface temperature, which was defined as the locally observed wintertime ventilation isotherm. The monthly climatology of the 5° × 5° resolution net heat flux was balanced by the heat storage rate for most regions of the North Pacific. To achieve this balance the net heat flux was calculated usi...

Monsoon Response of the Sea around Sri Lanka: Generation of Thermal Domesand Anticyclonic Vortices

Abstract: Results from an ocean general circulation model are used to study the response of the oceanic region surrounding Sri Lanka to monsoonal winds. East of Sri Lanka, a cold dome (Sri Lanka dome, SLD) develops during the southwest monsoon (SWM) in response to cyclonic curl in the local wind field. The dome decays after September due to the arrival of a long Rossby wave, associated with the reflection of the spring Wyrtki jet at the eastern boundary of the ocean. East of the SLD an anticyclonic eddy exists that is in intermediate geostrophic (IG) balance. North of Sri Lanka a cold dome (Bay of Bengal dome) develops after the SWM associated with a cyclonic gyre forced by Ekman pumping. The source of cold water of the Bay of Bengal dome is traced back to the SLD and upwelling zone along the east coast of India. South of Sri Lanka a major part of the Southwest Monsoon Current (SMC) turns northeastward and flows into the Bay of Bengal. The part that flows eastward terminates at progressively western longit...

Observations of the Directional Spectrum of Fetch-Limited Waves

Abstract: Estimates of the wave directional spectrum of fetch-limited sea states are made from measurements made with a heave–pitch–roll buoy at the Maui location off the west coast of New Zealand. The fetch-limited sea states have significant wave heights between 0.5 and 4.5 m and are observed during persistent southeast wind events, which have a well-defined fetch of 200 km. The integrated properties of the estimated angular spreading distributions are in general agreement with those observed in previous studies. However, the angular distributions estimated for the Maui location are bimodal at frequencies greater than the spectral peak frequency. This result for deep water ocean waves is in contrast to the generally accepted unimodal angular distribution for wind seas, but it supports recently reported measurements of the angular distribution of fetch-limited waves in Lake George, Australia. Parametric relationships that describe the characteristics of the bimodal distributions are derived, and the impor...

Observations of the Internal Tide in Monterey Canyon

Abstract: Data from two shipboard experiments in 1994, designed to observe the semidiurnal internal tide in Monterey Canyon, reveal semidiurnal currents of about 20 cm s21, which is an order of magnitude larger than the estimated barotropic tidal currents. The kinetic and potential energy (evidenced by isopycnal displacements of about 50 m) was greatest along paths following the characteristics calculated from linear theory. These energy ray paths are oriented nearly parallel to the canyon floor and may originate from large bathymetric features beyond the mouth of Monterey Bay. Energy propagated shoreward during the April experiment (ITEX1), whereas a standing wave, that is, an internal seiche, was observed in October (ITEX2). The difference is attributed to changes in stratification between the two experiments. Higher energy levels were present during ITEX1, which took place near the spring phase of the fortnightly (14.8 days) cycle in sea level, while ITEX2 occurred close to the neap phase. Further evidence of phase-locking between the surface and internal tides comes from monthlong current and temperature records obtained near the canyon head in 1991. The measured ratio of kinetic to potential energy during both ITEX1 and ITEX2 was only half that predicted by linear theory for freely propagating internal waves, probably a result of the constraining effects of topography. Internal tidal energy dissipation rate estimates for ITEX1 range from 1.3 3 1024 to 2.3 3 1023 Wm 23, depending on assumptions made about the effect of canyon shape on dissipation. Cross-canyon measurements made during ITEX2 reveal vertical transport of denser water from within the canyon up onto the adjacent continental shelf.

Simulation of Density-Driven Frictional Downslope Flow in Z-Coordinate Ocean Models

Abstract: An important component of the ocean’s thermohaline circulation is the sinking of dense water from continental shelves to abyssal depths. Such downslope flow is thought to be a consequence of bottom stress retarding the alongslope flow of density-driven plumes. In this paper the authors explore the potential for explicitly simulating this simple mechanism in z-coordinate models. A series of experiments are performed using a twin density-coordinate model simulation as a standard of comparison. The adiabatic nature of the experiments and the importance of bottom slope make it more likely that the density-coordinate model will faithfully reproduce the solution. The difficulty of maintaining the density signal as the plume descends the slope is found to be the main impediment to accurate simulation in the z-coordinate model. The results of process experiments suggest that the model solutions will converge when the z-coordinate model has sufficient vertical resolution to resolve the bottom viscous laye...

Meridional Circulation Cells and the Source Waters of the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent

Abstract: A 3½-layer model is used to study the meridional circulation cells that provide the source waters of the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). Its three active layers represent tropical, thermocline, and upper-intermediate waters, respectively, and across-interface flow between the layers parameterizes the processes of upwelling, subduction, and diapycnal mixing. Solutions are driven by climatological winds in a domain resembling the Pacific basin from 35°S to 55°N. An additional forcing mechanism is a specified inflow into layer 3 across the open southern boundary and a compensating outflow from layers 1 and 2 along the western boundary just north of the equator; the resulting circulation simulates the Pacific interocean circulation (IOC), in which intermediate water enters the South Pacific and the same amount of thermocline and tropical waters exit via the Indonesian Throughflow. Five meridional cells contribute to the EUC in the main-run solution: north and south Subtropical Cells (STCs), no...

Interannual Variability of Deep-Water Formation in the Northwestern Mediterranean

Abstract: In the Gulf of Lions, observations of deep convection have been sporadically carried out over the past three decades, showing significant interannual variability of convection activity. As long time series of meteorological observations of the region are available from coastal stations, heat flux time series for the Gulf of Lions for the individual winters from 1969 to 1994 are derived by calibrating these observations against direct measurements obtained over the convection site. These heat fluxes are also compared against heat fluxes obtained by the French PERIDOT weather model for the winter of 1991/92. A Kraus–Turner one-dimensional mixed layer model is initialized by climatological mean temperature and salinity profiles and then driven by the heat flux time series of the individual years. Resulting convection depths are in satisfactory agreement with existing observational evidence, showing the dominance of interannual variability of local forcing on convection variability. The interannual variability of convection depth causes interannual variations in deep-water properties, and these are also compared with the hydrographic database.

Mesoscale Variability in Denmark Strait: The PV Outflow Hypothesis*

Abstract: The outflow through Denmark Strait shows remarkable mesoscale variability characterized by the continuous formation of intense mesoscale cyclones just south of the sill. These cyclones have a diameter of about 30 km and clear signatures at the sea surface and in currents measured near the bottom. They have a remnant of Arctic Intermediate Water (AIW) in their core. The authors’ hypothesis is that these cyclones are formed by stretching of the high potential vorticity (PV) water column that outflows through Denmark Strait. The light, upper layer of the outflow, the East Greenland Current, remains on the surface in the Irminger Sea, while the dense overflow water descends the east Greenland continental slope. The midlevel waters, mostly AIW, could thus be stretched by more than 100%, which would induce very strong cyclonic relative vorticity. The main test of this new hypothesis is by way of numerical experiments carried out with an isopycnal coordinate ocean model configured to have a marginal sea...

Seasonal Cycles of Meridional Overturning and Heat Transport of the Indian Ocean

Abstract: A general circulation model of the Indian Ocean is fitted to monthly averaged climatological temperatures, salinities, and surface fluxes using the adjoint method. Interannual variability is minimized by penalizing the temporal drift from one seasonal cycle to another during a two-year integration. The resultant meridional overturning and heat transport display large seasonal variations, with maximum amplitudes of 18 and 22 (x 10(exp 6) cubic m/s) for the overturning and 1.8 and 1.4 (x 10(exp 15) W) for heat transport near 10 S and 10 N, respectively. A dynamical decomposition of the overturning and heat transport shows that the time-varying Ekman How plus its barotropic compensation can explain a large part of the seasonal variations in overturning and heat transport. The maximum variations at 10 deg N and 10 deg S are associated with monsoon reversal over the northern Indian Ocean and changes of the easterlies over the southern Indian Ocean. An external mode with variable topography has a moderate contribution where the Somali Current and the corresponding gyre reverse direction seasonally. Contribution front vertical shear (thermal wind and ageostrophic shear) is dominant near the southern boundary and large near the Somali Current latitudes. The dominant balance in the zonally integrated heat budget is between heat storage change and heat transport convergence except south of 15 S. Optimization with seasonal forcings improves estimates of sea surface temperatures, but the annual average overturning and heat transport are very similar to previous results with annual mean forcings. The annual average heat transport consists of roughly equal contributions from time-mean and time-varying fields of meridional velocities and temperatures in the northern Indian Ocean. indicating a significant rectification to the heat transport due to the time-varying fields. The time-mean and time-varying contributions are primarily due to the overturning and horizontal gyre, respectively. Inclusion of TOPEX data enhances the seasonal cycles of the estimated overturning and heat transport in the central Indian Ocean significantly and improves the estimated equatorial zonal flows but leads 10 unrealistic estimates of the velocity structure near the Indonesian Throughflow region, most likely owing to the deficiencies in the lateral boundary conditions.

Field Investigation of Transformation of the Wind Wave Frequency Spectrum with Fetch and the Stage of Development

Abstract: The variability of frequency spectra of waves is considered; for example, the dependencies of integral and spectral parameters of waves on wave-development factors and the interrelationships of the parameters are examined. Also studied is the transformation of the frequency spectrum shape in the course of its development, as well as the transition from the spectrum of developing waves to the spectrum of fully developed waves. Data were obtained in situ with common methods during a long-term program in the Black Sea. The variability of the spectrum of developing waves, as a function of the stage of wave development, is described on the basis of field data using estimates of parameters for the spectrum form of the JONSWAP type. A novel approximation of the equilibrium interval level dependence on the dimensionless peak frequency fm is obtained, which includes periods of stable and changeable behavior of the spectrum level. Transformation of the spectrum of wind-generated waves related to the devel...

Arctic Ice–Ocean Modeling with and without Climate Restoring

Abstract: A coupled ice–mixed layer–ocean model is constructed for the Arctic Ocean, the Barents Sea, and the Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian Sea. The model is used to address Arctic numerical modeling with and without climate restoring. The model without climate restoring reproduces basic observed features of the Arctic ice–ocean circulation. The simulated oceanic processes adjust to the surface and lateral fluxes and transport heat and mass in a way that achieves a rough salt and heat balance in the Arctic in the integration period of seven decades. The main deficiency of the model is its prediction of unrealistically high salinity in the central Arctic, which tends to weaken the ocean currents. The introduction of corrective salinity and temperature restoring terms has a significant impact on prediction of the ice–ocean circulation in the Arctic. The impact results from a chain reaction. First, the restoring terms change the salinity and thermal states in the oceanic mixed layer and below. The altered densi...

Convergence and Downwelling at a River Plume Front

Abstract: The small-scale structure of the circulation and hydrography at the frontal boundary of the Connecticut River plume in Long Island Sound has been resolved using a novel combination of instruments: a towed acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and a rigid array of current meters and conductivity–temperature sensors. Observations were made during the latter half of the eastward ebb tide, when the river plume was well established and the front was moving to the west at approximately 0.3 m s−1. Two across-front transects revealed a horizontal convergence rate in the across-front velocity components at 0.6 m of 0.05–0.1 s−1. This was associated with a salt-induced horizontal density gradient of 10−2 kg/m4. Observations obtained during a period in which the towed ADCP was caught in the zone of maximum surface convergence showed significant downwelling with a near-surface maximum of 0.2 m s−1. Vertical velocities of this magnitude are consistent with observed magnitudes of the convergence rate at 0.6...

Mean and Near-Inertial Ocean Current Response to Hurricane Gilbert

Abstract: The three-dimensional hurricane-induced ocean response is determined from velocity and temperature profiles acquired in the western Gulf of Mexico between 14 and 19 September 1988 during the passage of Hurricane Gilbert. The asymmetric wind structure of Gilbert indicated a wind stress of 4.2 N m−2 at a radius of maximum winds (Rmax) of 60 km. Using observed temperature profiles and climatological temperature–salinity relationships, the background and storm-induced geostrophic currents (re: 750 m) were 0.1 m s−1 and 0.2 m s−1, respectively. A Loop Current warm core ring (LCWCR) was also located to the right of the storm track at 4–5 Rmax, where anticyclonically rotating near-surface and 100-m currents decreased from 0.9 m s−1 to 0.6 m s−1 at depth. The relative vorticity in the LCWCR was shifted below the local Coriolis parameter by about 6%. In a storm-based coordinate system, alongtrack residual velocity profiles from 0 to 4 Rmax were fit to a dynamical model by least squares to isolate the near...

A Numerical Simulation of the Mean Water Pathways in the Subtropical and Tropical Pacific Ocean

Abstract: A reduced-gravity, primitive-equation, upper-ocean general circulation model is used to study the mean water pathways in the North Pacific subtropical and tropical ocean. The model features an explicit physical representation of the surface mixed layer, realistic basin geometry, observed wind and heat flux forcing, and a horizontal grid-stretching technique and a vertical sigma coordinate to obtain a realistic simulation of the subtropical/ tropical circulation. Velocity fields, and isopycnal and trajectory analyses are used to understand the mean flow of mixed layer and thermocline waters between the subtropics and Tropics. Subtropical/tropical water pathways are not simply direct meridional routes; the existence of vigorous zonal current systems obviously complicates the picture. In the surface mixed layer, upwelled equatorial waters flow into the subtropical gyre mainly through the midlatitude western boundary current (the model Kuroshio). There is additionally an interior ocean pathway, through the Subtropical Countercurrent (an eastward flow across the middle of the subtropical gyre), that directly feeds subtropical subduction sites. Below the mixed layer, the water pathways in the subtropical thermocline essentially reflect the anticyclonic gyre circulation where we find that the model subtropical gyre separates into two circulation centers. The surface circulation also features a doublecell pattern, with the poleward cell centered at about 308N and the equatorward component contained between 158 and 258N. In addition, thermocline waters that can be traced to subtropical subduction sites move toward the Tropics almost zonally across the basin, succeeding in flowing toward the equator only along relatively narrow north‐south conduits. The low-latitude western boundary currents serve as the main southward circuit for the subducted subtropical thermocline water. However, the model does find a direct flow of thermocline water into the Tropics through the ocean interior, confined to the far western Pacific (away from the low-latitude western boundary currents) across 108N. This interior pathway is found just to the west of a recirculating gyre in and just below the mixed layer in the northeastern Tropics. This equatorward interior flow and a flow that can be traced directly to the western boundary are then swept eastward by the deeper branches of the North Equatorial Countercurrent, finally penetrating to the equator in the central and eastern Pacific. Most of these results are consistent with available observations and recently published theoretical and idealized numerical experiments, although the interior pathway of subtropical thermocline water into the Tropics found in this experiment is not apparent in other published numerical simulations. Potential vorticity dynamics are useful in explaining the pathways taken by subtropical thermocline water as it flows into the Tropics. In particular, a large-scale zonally oriented ‘‘island’’ of homogenous potential vorticity, whose signature is determined by thin isopycnal layers in the central tropical Pacific along about 108N, is dynamically linked to a circulation that does not flow directly from the subtropics to the Tropics. This largescale potential vorticity feature helps to explain the circuitous pathways of the subducted subtropical thermocline waters as they approach the equator. Consequently, waters must first flow westward to the western boundary north of these closed potential vorticity contours and then mostly move southward through the low-latitude western boundary currents, flow eastward with the North Equatorial Countercurrent, and finally equatorward to join the Equatorial Undercurrent in the thermocline.