Tasman leakage: a new route in the global ocean conveyor belt

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Speich, Sabrina, Blanke, Bruno, de Vries, Pedro, Drijfhout, Sybren, Döös, Kristofer, Ganachaud, Alexandre, Marsh, Robert
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Department of Meteorology Stockholm (MISU), Stockholm University, Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales (LEGOS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Southampton Oceanographic center (SOC), University of Southampton
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2002
• Subjects: Oceanography: General: Descriptive and regional oceanography; Oceanography: Physical: General circulation; Global Change: Oceans (4203); [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; Drake Passage; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00172866; https://hal.science/hal-00172866/document; https://hal.science/hal-00172866/file/2001GL014586.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GL014586

International audience The existence of a new route that draws relatively cold waters from the Pacific Ocean to the North Atlantic via the Tasman outflow is presented. The new route materialises with comparable magnitude and characteristics in three independent numerical realisations of the global ocean circulation. Its realism is supported by hydrographic data interpolated via an inverse model. The ''Tasman leakage'' constitutes a sizeable component of the upper branch of the global conveyor belt and represents an extension to the prevailing views that hitherto emphasised the routes via the Drake Passage and the Indonesian Throughflow [Gordon, 1986].