Coupling a Basin-Wide, Coarse-Resolution North Atlantic and a Regional, Fine-Resolution Gulf of Mexico Model.

A reduced-gravity model is configured in the North Atlantic (NAtl) Ocean and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to investigate the wind-driven circulation and the variability of the associated current systems. The analysis is focused on the circulation of the western tropical NAtl and its relationship to the meso...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Peggion, Germana
Other Authors: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI STENNIS SPACE CENTER CENTER FOR OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERIC MODELING
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1995
Subjects:
Meteorology
Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
Operations Research
*MATHEMATICAL MODELS
*OCEAN CURRENTS
*WIND VELOCITY
*OCEAN MODELS
*NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
*MEXICO GULF
ANOMALIES
DYNAMICS
DEFORMATION
GRIDS
RESOLUTION
ISOLATION
EDDIES(FLUID MECHANICS)
VORTICES
THREE DIMENSIONAL
NONLINEAR SYSTEMS
SCALE
LENGTH
LINEARITY
TRANSPORT
SEPARATION
FLOW
WAVES
FLORIDA
RADIUS(MEASURE)
EDDY CURRENTS
DISPERSIONS
ROSSBY WAVES
STRAITS
SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
North Atlantic
South Atlantic Ocean
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA305381
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA305381
Description
Summary:A reduced-gravity model is configured in the North Atlantic (NAtl) Ocean and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to investigate the wind-driven circulation and the variability of the associated current systems. The analysis is focused on the circulation of the western tropical NAtl and its relationship to the mesoscale activity inside the GOM. Several experiments investigate the solutions as a function of the Rossby radius of deformation and the specification of the South Atlantic inflow. The GOM dynamics are analyzed with both the basin-wide coarse-resolution and the regional high-resolution models. Both configurations are able to reproduce eddy shedding: the time and length scales of the Loop Current (LpCur) variability do not depend upon the grid resolution. The NAtl simulations indicate that the transport at the Yucatan and Florida Straits are not strongly correlated. Also, no significant correlation is found between eddy shedding events and the GOM transport anomaly. The evolution of the LpCur instability is dependent upon the Rossby radius of deformation, LR, rather than inflow transport. For large LR, the separated rings migrate westward as dispersive linear Rossby waves. As LR decreases, the detached eddies migrate as nonlinear, isolated vortices. The nonlinear character of the LpCur increases with the inflow transport and enhances more interaction between rings and the main stream during separation events.

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