North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models
Numerical simulations are conducted across model platforms and resolutions with a focus on the North Atlantic. Barotropic vorticity diagnostics confirm that the subtropical gyre is characterized by an inviscid balance primarily between the applied wind stress curl and bottom pressure torque. In an a...
Published in: | Journal of Physical Oceanography |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Meteorological Society
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-022-555 https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 |
id |
ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_17912 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_17912 2023-09-05T13:21:25+02:00 North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models Schoonover, Joseph (author) Dewar, William (author) Wienders, Nicolas (author) Gula, Jonathan (author) McWilliams, James (author) Molemaker, M. (author) Bates, Susan (author) Danabasoglu, Gokhan (author) Yeager, Stephen (author) 2016-01-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-022-555 https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 en eng American Meteorological Society Journal of Physical Oceanography ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis--10.7289/V5C8276M ark:/85065/d7jm2c4d http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-022-555 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. Text article 2016 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 2023-08-14T18:44:11Z Numerical simulations are conducted across model platforms and resolutions with a focus on the North Atlantic. Barotropic vorticity diagnostics confirm that the subtropical gyre is characterized by an inviscid balance primarily between the applied wind stress curl and bottom pressure torque. In an area-integrated budget over the Gulf Stream, the northward return flow is balanced by bottom pressure torque. These integrated budgets are shown to be consistent across model platforms and resolution, suggesting that these balances are robust. Two of the simulations, at 100- and 10-km resolutions, produce a more northerly separating Gulf Stream but obtain the correct integrated vorticity balances. In these simulations, viscous torque is nonnegligible on smaller scales, indicating that the separation is linked to the details of the local dynamics. These results are shown to be consistent with a scale analysis argument that suggests that the biharmonic viscous torque in particular is upsetting the inviscid balance in simulations with a more northerly separation. In addition to providing evidence for locally controlled inviscid separation, these results provide motivation to revisit the formulation of subgrid-scale parameterizations in general circulation models. OCE1243015 NA13OAR4310138 OCE-1049190 Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Curl ENVELOPE(-63.071,-63.071,-70.797,-70.797) Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 1 289 303 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
Numerical simulations are conducted across model platforms and resolutions with a focus on the North Atlantic. Barotropic vorticity diagnostics confirm that the subtropical gyre is characterized by an inviscid balance primarily between the applied wind stress curl and bottom pressure torque. In an area-integrated budget over the Gulf Stream, the northward return flow is balanced by bottom pressure torque. These integrated budgets are shown to be consistent across model platforms and resolution, suggesting that these balances are robust. Two of the simulations, at 100- and 10-km resolutions, produce a more northerly separating Gulf Stream but obtain the correct integrated vorticity balances. In these simulations, viscous torque is nonnegligible on smaller scales, indicating that the separation is linked to the details of the local dynamics. These results are shown to be consistent with a scale analysis argument that suggests that the biharmonic viscous torque in particular is upsetting the inviscid balance in simulations with a more northerly separation. In addition to providing evidence for locally controlled inviscid separation, these results provide motivation to revisit the formulation of subgrid-scale parameterizations in general circulation models. OCE1243015 NA13OAR4310138 OCE-1049190 |
author2 |
Schoonover, Joseph (author) Dewar, William (author) Wienders, Nicolas (author) Gula, Jonathan (author) McWilliams, James (author) Molemaker, M. (author) Bates, Susan (author) Danabasoglu, Gokhan (author) Yeager, Stephen (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
spellingShingle |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
title_short |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
title_full |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
title_fullStr |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
title_full_unstemmed |
North Atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
title_sort |
north atlantic barotropic vorticity balances in numerical models |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-022-555 https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.071,-63.071,-70.797,-70.797) |
geographic |
Curl |
geographic_facet |
Curl |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Journal of Physical Oceanography ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis--10.7289/V5C8276M ark:/85065/d7jm2c4d http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-022-555 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0133.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
289 |
op_container_end_page |
303 |
_version_ |
1776202027361107968 |