Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
It is typically assumed that the meridional density gradient in the North Atlantic is well and positively correlated with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In numerical "water-hosing" experiments, for example, imposing an anomalous freshwater flux in the Northern Hemi...
Published in: | Journal of Physical Oceanography |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Amer Meteorological Soc
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/42843.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/ |
id |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:43456 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:43456 2023-05-15T17:33:47+02:00 Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Sevellec, Florian Huck, Thierry 2016-03 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/42843.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/ eng eng Amer Meteorological Soc https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/42843.pdf doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/ 2016 American Meteorological Society. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use CC-BY Journal Of Physical Oceanography (0022-3670) (Amer Meteorological Soc), 2016-03 , Vol. 46 , N. 3 , P. 895-917 Meridional overturning circulation Thermohaline circulation Atm/Ocean Structure/ Phenomena Ocean circulation Baroclinic flows Geographic location/entity Ekman pumping Circulation/ Dynamics Atlantic Ocean text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2016 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 2021-09-23T20:27:54Z It is typically assumed that the meridional density gradient in the North Atlantic is well and positively correlated with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In numerical "water-hosing" experiments, for example, imposing an anomalous freshwater flux in the Northern Hemisphere leads to a slowdown of the AMOC. However, on planetary scale, the first-order dynamics are linked to the geostrophic balance, relating the north-south pressure gradient to the zonal circulation. In this study, these two approaches are reconciled. At steady state and under geostrophic dynamics, an analytical expression is derived to relate the zonal and meridional pressure gradient. This solution is only valid where the meridional density gradient length scale is shorter than Earth's curvature length scale, that is, north of 35 degrees N. This theoretical expression links the north-south density gradient to the AMOC and can be used as a closure for zonally averaged ocean models. Assumptions and shortcomings of the approach are presented. Implications of these results for paleoclimate problems such as AMOC collapse and asymmetry in the meridional overturning circulation of the Atlantic and of the Pacific are discussed. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Pacific Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 3 895 917 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
topic |
Meridional overturning circulation Thermohaline circulation Atm/Ocean Structure/ Phenomena Ocean circulation Baroclinic flows Geographic location/entity Ekman pumping Circulation/ Dynamics Atlantic Ocean |
spellingShingle |
Meridional overturning circulation Thermohaline circulation Atm/Ocean Structure/ Phenomena Ocean circulation Baroclinic flows Geographic location/entity Ekman pumping Circulation/ Dynamics Atlantic Ocean Sevellec, Florian Huck, Thierry Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
topic_facet |
Meridional overturning circulation Thermohaline circulation Atm/Ocean Structure/ Phenomena Ocean circulation Baroclinic flows Geographic location/entity Ekman pumping Circulation/ Dynamics Atlantic Ocean |
description |
It is typically assumed that the meridional density gradient in the North Atlantic is well and positively correlated with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In numerical "water-hosing" experiments, for example, imposing an anomalous freshwater flux in the Northern Hemisphere leads to a slowdown of the AMOC. However, on planetary scale, the first-order dynamics are linked to the geostrophic balance, relating the north-south pressure gradient to the zonal circulation. In this study, these two approaches are reconciled. At steady state and under geostrophic dynamics, an analytical expression is derived to relate the zonal and meridional pressure gradient. This solution is only valid where the meridional density gradient length scale is shorter than Earth's curvature length scale, that is, north of 35 degrees N. This theoretical expression links the north-south density gradient to the AMOC and can be used as a closure for zonally averaged ocean models. Assumptions and shortcomings of the approach are presented. Implications of these results for paleoclimate problems such as AMOC collapse and asymmetry in the meridional overturning circulation of the Atlantic and of the Pacific are discussed. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sevellec, Florian Huck, Thierry |
author_facet |
Sevellec, Florian Huck, Thierry |
author_sort |
Sevellec, Florian |
title |
Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_short |
Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_full |
Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_fullStr |
Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Geostrophic Closure of the Zonally Averaged Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_sort |
geostrophic closure of the zonally averaged atlantic meridional overturning circulation |
publisher |
Amer Meteorological Soc |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/42843.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/ |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Journal Of Physical Oceanography (0022-3670) (Amer Meteorological Soc), 2016-03 , Vol. 46 , N. 3 , P. 895-917 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/42843.pdf doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00323/43456/ |
op_rights |
2016 American Meteorological Society. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0148.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
895 |
op_container_end_page |
917 |
_version_ |
1766132396964446208 |