Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model
The circulation in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre is complex and strongly influenced by the topography. The gyre dynamics are traditionally understood as the result of a topographic Sverdrup balance, which corresponds to a first-order balance between the planetary vorticity advection, the bottom p...
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Copernicus Publications
2020
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00051262 2023-05-15T17:28:15+02:00 Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model Le Corre, Mathieu Gula, Jonathan Tréguier, Anne-Marie 2020-04 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051262 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00050918/os-16-451-2020.pdf https://os.copernicus.org/articles/16/451/2020/os-16-451-2020.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications Ocean Science -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2183769 -- http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/os.html -- 1812-0792 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051262 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00050918/os-16-451-2020.pdf https://os.copernicus.org/articles/16/451/2020/os-16-451-2020.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC-BY article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2020 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 2022-02-08T22:36:29Z The circulation in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre is complex and strongly influenced by the topography. The gyre dynamics are traditionally understood as the result of a topographic Sverdrup balance, which corresponds to a first-order balance between the planetary vorticity advection, the bottom pressure torque, and the wind stress curl. However, these dynamics have been studied mostly with non-eddy-resolving models and a crude representation of the bottom topography. Here we revisit the barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre using a new eddy-resolving simulation (with a grid space of ≈2 km) with topography-following vertical coordinates to better represent the mesoscale turbulence and flow–topography interactions. Our findings highlight that, locally, there is a first-order balance between the bottom pressure torque and the nonlinear terms, albeit with a high degree of cancellation between them. However, balances integrated over different regions of the gyre – shelf, slope, and interior – still highlight the important role played by nonlinearities and bottom drag curls. In particular, the Sverdrup balance cannot describe the dynamics in the interior of the gyre. The main sources of cyclonic vorticity are nonlinear terms due to eddies generated along eastern boundary currents and time-mean nonlinear terms in the northwest corner. Our results suggest that a good representation of the mesoscale activity and a good positioning of mean currents are two important conditions for a better representation of the circulation in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Curl ENVELOPE(-63.071,-63.071,-70.797,-70.797) Ocean Science 16 2 451 468 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA |
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ftnonlinearchiv |
language |
English |
topic |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
spellingShingle |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung Le Corre, Mathieu Gula, Jonathan Tréguier, Anne-Marie Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
The circulation in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre is complex and strongly influenced by the topography. The gyre dynamics are traditionally understood as the result of a topographic Sverdrup balance, which corresponds to a first-order balance between the planetary vorticity advection, the bottom pressure torque, and the wind stress curl. However, these dynamics have been studied mostly with non-eddy-resolving models and a crude representation of the bottom topography. Here we revisit the barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre using a new eddy-resolving simulation (with a grid space of ≈2 km) with topography-following vertical coordinates to better represent the mesoscale turbulence and flow–topography interactions. Our findings highlight that, locally, there is a first-order balance between the bottom pressure torque and the nonlinear terms, albeit with a high degree of cancellation between them. However, balances integrated over different regions of the gyre – shelf, slope, and interior – still highlight the important role played by nonlinearities and bottom drag curls. In particular, the Sverdrup balance cannot describe the dynamics in the interior of the gyre. The main sources of cyclonic vorticity are nonlinear terms due to eddies generated along eastern boundary currents and time-mean nonlinear terms in the northwest corner. Our results suggest that a good representation of the mesoscale activity and a good positioning of mean currents are two important conditions for a better representation of the circulation in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Le Corre, Mathieu Gula, Jonathan Tréguier, Anne-Marie |
author_facet |
Le Corre, Mathieu Gula, Jonathan Tréguier, Anne-Marie |
author_sort |
Le Corre, Mathieu |
title |
Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
title_short |
Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
title_full |
Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
title_fullStr |
Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
title_sort |
barotropic vorticity balance of the north atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051262 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00050918/os-16-451-2020.pdf https://os.copernicus.org/articles/16/451/2020/os-16-451-2020.pdf |
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 |
Ocean Science -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2183769 -- http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/os.html -- 1812-0792 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051262 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00050918/os-16-451-2020.pdf https://os.copernicus.org/articles/16/451/2020/os-16-451-2020.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020 |
container_title |
Ocean Science |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
451 |
op_container_end_page |
468 |
_version_ |
1766120802266120192 |