Abstract.A coupled ocean-atmosphere model of the Pacific basin is used to illustrate a mechanism by which E1 Nifio and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) may

No abstract

Baroclinic eddies in a rotating box with a sloping bottom were produced by squirting dense salt water up the sloping bottom and along the “eastern” wall. The jet stagnated in shallow water and was ejected normal to the wall. For certain parameters (volume flux of jet, etc.), a coherent lens of dense bottom water formed and propagated west with an overlying cyclonic vortex. The circulation in the bottom lens, on the other hand, was relatively weak. No such eddy forms when the depth of fresh water is relatively deep, and a regime diagram is given for the formation of the coherent eddies. Thus a relatively simple structure emerges despite the complexity of the generating process. The pressure field determined from density measurements is discussed in terms of an integral theorem for coherent eddies, and the westward propagation is also related to previous theories. Several other techniques for generating such eddies are discussed.

Global warming induces ocean circulation changes that not only can redistribute ocean reservoir temperature stratification but also change the total heat content anomaly of the ocean. Here all consequences of this process are referred to collectively as “redistribution.” Previous model studies of redistributive effects could not measure the net global contribution to the amount of ocean heat uptake by redistribution. In this study, a global ocean model experiment with abrupt increase in surface temperature is conducted with a new passive tracer formulation. This separates ocean heat uptake into contributions due to redistribution temperature and surface heat flux anomalies and those due to the passive advection and mixing of surface heat flux anomalies forced in the atmosphere. For a decline in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation of about 40%, redistribution nearly doubles the Atlantic passive anomalous surface heat input and depth penetration of temperature anomalies. However, smaller increases in the Indian and Pacific Oceans cause the net global redistributive contribution to be only 25% of the passive contribution. Despite the much larger anomalous surface heat input in the Atlantic, the Pacific gains heat content anomaly similar to that in the Atlantic because of export from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans via the global conveyor belt. Of this interbasin heat transport, most of the passive component comes from the Indian Ocean and the redistributive component comes from the Atlantic.

The three-dimensional dynamics of equatorially asymmetric thermohaline flow are investigated using an ocean general circulation model in a highly idealized configuration with no wind forcing and nearly fixed surface density. Small asymmetries in surface density lead to strongly asymmetric meridional overturning patterns, with deep water formed in the denser (northern) hemisphere filling the abyss. The poleward deep transport in the lighter hemisphere implies that the deep zonal-mean zonal pressure gradient reverses across the equator. Density along the eastern boundary and the zonally averaged density are nearly symmetric about the equator except at very high latitudes; the Southern Hemisphere western boundary thermocline, in contrast, is balanced by weaker upwelling and is hence broader than its northern counterpart. This pattern is explained through the spinup of the asymmetric circulation from a symmetric one, the timescale of which is set through advection by the mean deep western boundary current.For the strength of the interhemispheric transport, a lower bound of one-half the one-hemisphere overturning strength is derived theoretically for small finite forcing asymmetries, implying that the symmetric circulation is unlikely to be realized. Under asymmetric surface forcing, enhanced mixing in the denser hemisphere suppresses interhemispheric transport. Conversely, very strong cross-equatorial transport is caused by enhanced mixing in the lighter hemisphere. These results indicate that, once the surface densities determine that North Atlantic Deep Water is the dominant ventilating source, its export rate from the North Atlantic is controlled by mixing and upwelling in the rest of the World Ocean.