Passive tracers in a general circulation model of the Southern Ocean

• Main Authors: I. G. Stevens, D. P. Stevens
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.371.8140; http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/31/66/35/PDF/angeo-17-971-1999.pdf

Abstract. Passive tracers are used in an o€-line version of the United Kingdom Fine Resolution Antarctic Model (FRAM) to highlight features of the circulation and provide information on the inter-ocean exchange of water masses. The use of passive tracers allows a picture to be built up of the deep circulation which is not readily apparent from examination of the velocity or density ®elds. Comparison of observations with FRAM results gives good agreement for many features of the Southern Ocean circulation. Tracer distributions are consistent with the concept of a global ``conveyor belt' ' with a return path via the Agulhas retro¯ection region for the replenishment of North Atlantic Deep Water. Key words. Oceanography: general (numerical modeling; water masses) á Oceanography: physical (general circulation). 1