Simulation of North Atlantic Variability

• Main Author: Holland,William R.
• Other Authors: NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH BOULDER CO
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1982
• Subjects: *Eddies(Fluid mechanics); Vortices; North Atlantic Ocean; Circulation; Variations; Ocean models; Quasigeostrophic stream functions; Stream functions; Component reports; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADP001047; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADP001047

In a recent paper, Schmitz and Holland (1982) made a first comprehensive attempt to compare a number of simple quasigeostrophic numerical experiments with observations. For the first time it became clear that the first order problem was to be able to simulate the geographic distributions of variability as measured for example by eddy kinetic energy patterns and to associate these with the large-scale patterns of mean flow. Moreover, it seemed necessary to do this from the near Gulf Stream region to the North Equatorial Current, from the ocean surface to abyssal depths, and from the western boundary to the eastern basins. While the data are and will continue to be very broad brush (i.e., sparse in space and time), the combination of analyses of older data, the collection of new data from a few critical areas, and the development and exploration of realistic numerical models should lead to a much better synthesis of our understanding of the system. Since the Schmitz and Holland study, EGCM development has proceeded in two ways; (i) simple, steadily forced, wind-driven oceans with rectangular domain and three layers in the vertical, and (ii) a model of the North Atlantic basin with realistic geometry and wind-forcing. This paper offers a few results from both kinds of models. This article is from 'Proceedings of the Workshop on Gulf Stream Structure and Variability Held at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina on 1-2 April 1982,' AD-A128 789.