Can the ocean’s heat engine control horizontal circulation? Insights from the Caspian Sea.

We investigate the role of the ocean's heat engine in setting horizontal circulation using a numerical model of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea can be seen as a virtual laboratory - a compromise between realistic global models which are hampered by long equilibration times and idealized basin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Bruneau, N, Zika, J, Toumi, R
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Geophysical Union 2017
Subjects:
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Geosciences
Multidisciplinary
Geology
SOUTHERN-OCEAN
THERMOHALINE STRUCTURE
SEASONAL VARIABILITY
GENERAL-CIRCULATION
MODEL
CLIMATE
FLUXES
WATER
TRANSPORT
CLOSURE
MD Multidisciplinary
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Southern Ocean
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/51030
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075182
Description
Summary:We investigate the role of the ocean's heat engine in setting horizontal circulation using a numerical model of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea can be seen as a virtual laboratory - a compromise between realistic global models which are hampered by long equilibration times and idealized basin geometry models which are not constrained by observations. We find that increases in vertical mixing drive stronger thermally direct overturning and consequent conversion of available potential to kinetic energy. Numerical solutions with water mass structures closest to observations overturn 0.02 − 0.04 x 106m3/s(Sv) representing the first estimate of Caspian Sea overturning. Our results also suggest that the overturning is thermally-forced increasing in intensity with increasing vertical diffusivity. Finally, stronger thermally direct overturning is associated with a stronger horizontal circulation in the Caspian Sea. This suggests the ocean's heat engine can strongly impact broader horizontal circulations in the ocean.

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