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The residual circulation of the Southern Ocean: Which spatio-temporal scales are needed?
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology .
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology .ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1309-5921
2013 (English)In: Ocean Modelling, ISSN 1463-5003, E-ISSN 1463-5011, Vol. 64, p. 46-55Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The Southern Ocean circulation consists of a complicated mixture of processes and phenomena that arise at different time and spatial scales which need to be parametrized in the state-of-the-art climate models. The temporal and spatial scales that give rise to the present-day residual mean circulation are here inves- tigated by calculating the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) in density coordinates from an eddy-permitting global model. The region sensitive to the temporal decomposition is located between 38°S and 63°S, associated with the eddy-induced transport. The ‘‘Bolus’’ component of the residual circu- lation corresponds to the eddy-induced transport. It is dominated by timescales between 1 month and 1 year. The temporal behavior of the transient eddies is examined in splitting the ‘‘Bolus’’ component into a ‘‘Seasonal’’, an ‘‘Eddy’’ and an ‘‘Inter-monthly’’ component, respectively representing the correlation between density and velocity fluctuations due to the average seasonal cycle, due to mesoscale eddies and due to large-scale motion on timescales longer than one month that is not due to the seasonal cycle. The ‘‘Seasonal’’ bolus cell is important at all latitudes near the surface. The ‘‘Eddy’’ bolus cell is dominant in the thermocline between 50°S and 35°S and over the whole ocean depth at the latitude of the Drake Passage. The ‘‘Inter-monthly’’ bolus cell is important in all density classes and is maximal in the Brazil– Malvinas Confluence and the Agulhas Return Current. The spatial decomposition indicates that a large part of the Eulerian mean circulation is recovered for spatial scales larger than 11.25°, implying that small-scale meanders in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), near the Subantarctic and Polar Fronts, and near the Subtropical Front are important in the compensation of the Eulerian mean flow. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 64, p. 46-55
Keywords [en]
Overturning, Stream function, Southern Ocean, Bolus, Deacon Cell
National Category
Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Research subject
Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-88439DOI: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2013.01.005ISI: 000316193600004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-88439DiVA, id: diva2:611222
Funder
Swedish Research CouncilAvailable from: 2013-03-15 Created: 2013-03-15 Last updated: 2022-02-28Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. The thermohaline circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum and in the Present-Day climate
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The thermohaline circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum and in the Present-Day climate
2013 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The thermohaline circulation (THC) corresponds to the large time- and spatial-scales ocean circulation associated with the transport of heat and salt, and is known to be an important factor controlling the climate variability. The large scales involved in the THC make it difficult to observe, and therefore the synergy of numerical models and climate proxy reconstructions is particularly relevant to study the characteristics of this circulation in the present and past climates.

In this doctoral thesis, the THC during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Present-Day (PD) is explored using a state-of-the-art Ocean General Circulation Model in its high- and low-resolution regimes. By comparing the LGM model outputs with the paleo-proxy reconstructions, it is shown that the high-resolution simulation improves the representation of the sea surface tem- peratures in the regions where the current structures appear to be complex, i.e., the western boundary currents (Agulhas, Kuroshio, Gulf Stream) and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, although statistical comparisons with paleo- proxy reconstructions are not significantly improved on a global scale.

The THC involves a superposition of processes acting at widely different spatial and temporal scales, from the geostrophic large-scale and slowly-varying flow to the mesoscale turbulent eddies and at even smaller-scale, the mixing generated by the internal wave field. Not all these processes can be properly resolved in numerical models, and thus need to be parameterized. Analyzing the THC in an eddy-permitting numerical model, it was found that the temporal scales required for diagnosing the Southern Ocean circulation should not exceed 1 month and the spatial scales needed to be taken into account must be smaller than 1°. Important changes in the nature and intensity of the THC were observed between the LGM and PD simulations. An estimation of the turnover times (i.e., the time it takes for the water parcel to make and entire loop on the Conveyor Belt) revealed that the LGM THC could be more vigorous than under the PD conditions. As a result, the ocean transports of heat and freshwater, the oceanic uptake of CO2, the ventilation of the deep ocean and the reorganization of the passive and active tracers (e.g., temperature, salinity, greenhouse gases, nutrients) can be altered in these different regimes.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 2013. p. 52
Keywords
ocean model, circulation, LGM
National Category
Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Research subject
Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-89011 (URN)978-91-7447-697-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2013-05-24, Högbomsalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 12, Stockholm, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript. 

Available from: 2013-05-02 Created: 2013-04-08 Last updated: 2022-02-24Bibliographically approved

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