Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is...
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2021
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/133794 2024-02-04T10:02:22+01:00 Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 2021-09-16T14:18:19Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 en eng American Geophysical Union (AGU) 10.1029/2020GL089135 Geophysical Research Letters https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ MIT web domain Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2021 ftmit 2024-01-08T19:06:39Z ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is opposed by precipitation. A two-layer analytical model illustrates that the overturning circulation acts to mitigate the effect of precipitation by advecting salty, dense water from subtropical latitudes to polar latitudes. The nonlinear dependence of the overturning strength on basin width makes it more efficient in a narrow basin, resulting in a convection shutdown at a stronger freshwater forcing. These predictions are confirmed by simulations with a general circulation model configured with a single closed basin to the north and a reentrant channel to the south. This suggests that basin width may play a role in suppressing convection in the North Pacific but not in the North Atlantic. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Pacific |
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Open Polar |
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DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
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ftmit |
language |
English |
description |
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is opposed by precipitation. A two-layer analytical model illustrates that the overturning circulation acts to mitigate the effect of precipitation by advecting salty, dense water from subtropical latitudes to polar latitudes. The nonlinear dependence of the overturning strength on basin width makes it more efficient in a narrow basin, resulting in a convection shutdown at a stronger freshwater forcing. These predictions are confirmed by simulations with a general circulation model configured with a single closed basin to the north and a reentrant channel to the south. This suggests that basin width may play a role in suppressing convection in the North Pacific but not in the North Atlantic. |
author2 |
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R |
spellingShingle |
Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
author_facet |
Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R |
author_sort |
Youngs, Madeleine K |
title |
Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_short |
Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_full |
Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_fullStr |
Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_full_unstemmed |
Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_sort |
basin‐width dependence of northern deep convection |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
MIT web domain |
op_relation |
10.1029/2020GL089135 Geophysical Research Letters https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
_version_ |
1789968997480923136 |