An Isopycnic Model Study of the North Atlantic. Part I: Model Experiment

Low‐frequency variability of the large‐scale ocean circulation: A dynamical systems approach

“…The growth of perturbations and their interaction with the background state, as well as with each other, lead to a modification of the mean state and to the prevalence of the time‐dependent mesoscale features that were discussed in section 2.1. High‐resolution ocean GCMs, with realistic continental geometry and bathymetry, have been run either globally or for the Atlantic region [ Semtner and Chervin , 1992; Stammer et al , 1996; New et al , 1995; Chao et al , 1996; McWilliams , 1996; Smith et al , 2000]. The results of these numerical simulations show large internal variability on a wide range of space scales and timescales and the influence of the eddies on the mean flow.…”

Imperfections of the North Atlantic wind-driven ocean circulation: Continental geometry and windstress shape

“…Ocean general circulation models (OGCM's), having a realistic continental geometry and bathymetry and incorporating the thermohaline circulation, are run now with an eddy-resolving resolution, not only for the Atlantic (New et al, 1996) but also on a global scale (Semtner and Chervin, 1992). These results also show large internal variability on a wide range of time scales and the influence of the eddies on the mean flow.…”

Simulations of the Atlantic Ocean with a free surface sigma coordinate ocean model

“…The [Pacanowski et al, 1991]; in particular, the Community Modeling Effort (the CME model) is described by Bryan and Holland [1989] and Bryan et al [1995]. Isopycnal ocean models have also been used for large-scale simulations of the Atlantic Ocean [Oberhuber, 1993;New et al, 1995]. A recent study [Chassignet et al, 1996] compared the two types of models and shows that there are considerable similarities between results obtained by a z level model, which uses the eddy-induced isopycnal mixing parameterization of Gent and McWilliams [ 1990], and results obtained by an isopycnal coordinate model; both models have more realistic meridional overturning and heat fluxes than a z level model with a standard horizontal mixing; a similar conclusion has been also presented by Bfning et al [ 1995].…”