Variability of water masses and circulation in the subtropical North Atlantic

• Main Author: Marsh, R.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/142135/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/142135/1/0000367.pdf

Observations of interannual variability in 18 Water (Talley and Raymer 1982) and Gulf Stream transport (Worthington 1977) motivate an ocean model sensitivity study. The North Atlantic circulation is simulated with a three-dimensional isopycniccoordinate GCM. Idealized anomalous buoyancy-forcing fields (associated with outbreaks of cold, dry continental air over the Gulf Stream/Sargasso Sea region) are constructed. In a series of sensitivity experiments, wintertime buoyancy loss over the Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea is thus increased to varying degrees, with anomalous ocean-to-atmosphere buoyancy fluxes of up to double climatological values. Under excess buoyancy loss, winter mixed layer depths increase, and a greater volume of model 18 Water is formed. End-of-winter mixed layer density also increases, leading to the formation of a denser variety of 18 Water. The anomalous 18 Water recirculates around the Sargasso Sea as a signal of low potential vorticity, which spreads out and weakens on a decadal timescale. Strengthened horizontal pressure gradients in the vicinity of the anomalous 18 Water drive intensified baroclinic transports at the "immediate" end of winter (in March), after which a full-depth barotropic intensification of the Gulf Stream develops. Strongest intensification occurs in May, when the Gulf Stream barotropic transport is increased locally by up to 10 Sv. The anomalous transports which account for barotropic intensification are confined to deep and abyssal layers of the model. Where the associated anomalous bottom currents traverse isobaths, "extra" bottom pressure torque (BPT) is invoked. An anomalous BPT term in the barotropic vorticity balance may therefore account for the intensification. Computed from the model fields of density and sea surface height, such a term does appear to produce the extra negative vorticity associated with anticyclogenic intensification. It is concluded that wintertime excess buoyancy loss drives a springtime barotropic response of the subtropical gyre, through ...