Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic
International audience The meridional transport of salt in the Atlantic ocean is an important process for climate, controlling the stability of the meridional overturning circulation. The contribution of transient eddies to this transport is quantified in an eddy resolving North Atlantic model at 1/...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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ftsorbonneuniv:oai:HAL:hal-00716455v1 2024-09-15T18:22:02+00:00 Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic Tréguier, Anne-Marie Deshayes, Julie Lique, Camille Dussin, Raphaël Molines, Jean-Marc 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) Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) University of Washington Seattle Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels Grenoble (LEGI) Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2012 https://hal.science/hal-00716455 https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007927 en eng HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1029/2012JC007927 hal-00716455 https://hal.science/hal-00716455 doi:10.1029/2012JC007927 ISSN: 2169-9275 EISSN: 2169-9291 Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans https://hal.science/hal-00716455 Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans, 2012, 117, pp.C05010. ⟨10.1029/2012JC007927⟩ [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2012 ftsorbonneuniv https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007927 2024-07-25T23:47:32Z International audience The meridional transport of salt in the Atlantic ocean is an important process for climate, controlling the stability of the meridional overturning circulation. The contribution of transient eddies to this transport is quantified in an eddy resolving North Atlantic model at 1/12° resolution (NATL12), and compared with lower resolution North-Atlantic and global 1/4° models. In NATL12 between 10°N and 40°N, there is a volume loss by evaporation of 0.6 Sverdrups (Sv). The divergence of the eddy flux of salt (normalized by a reference salinity of 34.8) is 0.2 Sv over the region, a significant fraction of the total air-seawater exchange, but it is compensated by an opposite convergent transport of salt by the mean flow, so that the total transport of salt is small. The compensation between eddy and mean salt transport is almost complete in a multicentury long global model experiment, but less effective in NATL12 because the short integration time does not allow the salt content to equilibrate and the model drift is large. Eddies arising from baroclinic instability contribute to the meridional salt transports at the northern and southern boundary of the subtropical gyre, where they appear consistent with a lateral diffusion acting on the mean salinity gradient. However, the eddy transport of salt is the sum of two terms: an advective contribution (arising from the correlations of velocity and isopycnal thicknesses) and a diffusion along isopycnals. Both components have the same amplitude at the southern boundary of the subtropical gyre, while diffusion is dominant at the northern boundary. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic HAL Sorbonne Université Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 117 C5 n/a n/a |
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Open Polar |
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HAL Sorbonne Université |
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ftsorbonneuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
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[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography Tréguier, Anne-Marie Deshayes, Julie Lique, Camille Dussin, Raphaël Molines, Jean-Marc Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
description |
International audience The meridional transport of salt in the Atlantic ocean is an important process for climate, controlling the stability of the meridional overturning circulation. The contribution of transient eddies to this transport is quantified in an eddy resolving North Atlantic model at 1/12° resolution (NATL12), and compared with lower resolution North-Atlantic and global 1/4° models. In NATL12 between 10°N and 40°N, there is a volume loss by evaporation of 0.6 Sverdrups (Sv). The divergence of the eddy flux of salt (normalized by a reference salinity of 34.8) is 0.2 Sv over the region, a significant fraction of the total air-seawater exchange, but it is compensated by an opposite convergent transport of salt by the mean flow, so that the total transport of salt is small. The compensation between eddy and mean salt transport is almost complete in a multicentury long global model experiment, but less effective in NATL12 because the short integration time does not allow the salt content to equilibrate and the model drift is large. Eddies arising from baroclinic instability contribute to the meridional salt transports at the northern and southern boundary of the subtropical gyre, where they appear consistent with a lateral diffusion acting on the mean salinity gradient. However, the eddy transport of salt is the sum of two terms: an advective contribution (arising from the correlations of velocity and isopycnal thicknesses) and a diffusion along isopycnals. Both components have the same amplitude at the southern boundary of the subtropical gyre, while diffusion is dominant at the northern boundary. |
author2 |
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) Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) University of Washington Seattle Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels Grenoble (LEGI) Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tréguier, Anne-Marie Deshayes, Julie Lique, Camille Dussin, Raphaël Molines, Jean-Marc |
author_facet |
Tréguier, Anne-Marie Deshayes, Julie Lique, Camille Dussin, Raphaël Molines, Jean-Marc |
author_sort |
Tréguier, Anne-Marie |
title |
Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
title_short |
Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
title_full |
Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the North Atlantic |
title_sort |
eddy contributions to the meridional transport of salt in the north atlantic |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00716455 https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007927 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
ISSN: 2169-9275 EISSN: 2169-9291 Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans https://hal.science/hal-00716455 Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans, 2012, 117, pp.C05010. ⟨10.1029/2012JC007927⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1029/2012JC007927 hal-00716455 https://hal.science/hal-00716455 doi:10.1029/2012JC007927 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007927 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
117 |
container_issue |
C5 |
container_start_page |
n/a |
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n/a |
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1810461337179914240 |