The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation
ABSTRACT The effect of continental slope on buoyancy-driven circulation has been studied using a two-layer quasigeostrophic model. In the model, buoyancy flux is incorporated as interfacial mass flux, which consists of narrow intense detrainment in the north and broad entrainment in the south. The m...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.2936 http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf |
id |
ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.1044.2936 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.1044.2936 2023-05-15T17:33:00+02:00 The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation Lixin Wu Zhengyu Liu Harley E Hurlburt The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives application/pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.2936 http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.2936 http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf text ftciteseerx 2020-04-05T00:15:37Z ABSTRACT The effect of continental slope on buoyancy-driven circulation has been studied using a two-layer quasigeostrophic model. In the model, buoyancy flux is incorporated as interfacial mass flux, which consists of narrow intense detrainment in the north and broad entrainment in the south. The model explicitly shows that, in the presence of the continental slope, a small amount of buoyancy flux can drive a strong barotropic flow. This flow develops because the beta effect of bottom topography either reduces or deflects the buoyancy-driven deep flow so that it cannot compensate its overlying counterflow, thus generating a net transport. As a result, in a double gyre circulation with a western continental slope, a small amount of detrainment/entrainment water mass can substantially enhance the transport of the western boundary current through southwestern deflection of the deep subpolar circulation. For example, with a reasonable western continental slope, a 10 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1 ) detrainment mass flux can increase the transport of the western boundary current from 40 Sv of the wind-driven transport to 148 Sv. Relevance to the North Atlantic is then discussed. Text North Atlantic Unknown |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
ftciteseerx |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT The effect of continental slope on buoyancy-driven circulation has been studied using a two-layer quasigeostrophic model. In the model, buoyancy flux is incorporated as interfacial mass flux, which consists of narrow intense detrainment in the north and broad entrainment in the south. The model explicitly shows that, in the presence of the continental slope, a small amount of buoyancy flux can drive a strong barotropic flow. This flow develops because the beta effect of bottom topography either reduces or deflects the buoyancy-driven deep flow so that it cannot compensate its overlying counterflow, thus generating a net transport. As a result, in a double gyre circulation with a western continental slope, a small amount of detrainment/entrainment water mass can substantially enhance the transport of the western boundary current through southwestern deflection of the deep subpolar circulation. For example, with a reasonable western continental slope, a 10 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1 ) detrainment mass flux can increase the transport of the western boundary current from 40 Sv of the wind-driven transport to 148 Sv. Relevance to the North Atlantic is then discussed. |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
Lixin Wu Zhengyu Liu Harley E Hurlburt |
spellingShingle |
Lixin Wu Zhengyu Liu Harley E Hurlburt The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
author_facet |
Lixin Wu Zhengyu Liu Harley E Hurlburt |
author_sort |
Lixin Wu |
title |
The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
title_short |
The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
title_full |
The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
title_fullStr |
The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Effect of Continental Slope on Buoyancy-Driven Circulation |
title_sort |
effect of continental slope on buoyancy-driven circulation |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.2936 http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf |
op_relation |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.2936 http://aos.wisc.edu/%7Ezliu/publications/99_JPO_Wuetal_SlopeWBC.pdf |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
_version_ |
1766131339028856832 |