Indonesian throughflow and its effect on the climate of the Indian Ocean
An idealized box model of the Indian Ocean is used to examine the hypothesis proposed by Godfrey and Weaver (1991) that the buoyancy-forced Leeuwin Current off the west coast of Australia is a manifestation of a basinwide thermohaline circulation driven by the Indonesian throughflow. The stronger Sv...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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McGill University
1991
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| Online Access: | http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=60072 |
| Summary: | An idealized box model of the Indian Ocean is used to examine the hypothesis proposed by Godfrey and Weaver (1991) that the buoyancy-forced Leeuwin Current off the west coast of Australia is a manifestation of a basinwide thermohaline circulation driven by the Indonesian throughflow. The stronger Sverdrup circulation dominates the thermohaline circulation in most of the model ocean except near the eastern boundary. The western boundary currents apparently play a very minor role in this basinwide thermohaline circulation. This differs from the warm water route proposed by Gordon (1986), and supports the alternative hypothesis that the heat from the equatorial Pacific is returned to the South Atlantic via the eastward-flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current rather than past the Agulhas Retroflection. The Indonesian throughflow is shown to significantly affect the surface heat fluxes and the meridional heat transport in the Indian Ocean. The role of the throughflow in maintaining the very warm climate of the Indian Ocean (a net exporter of heat) is described. Large-scale, fairly long period ($>$100 days) barotropic eddies are found in the western portion of the basin for some solutions. |
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