Bottom dissipation of subinertial currents at the Atlantic zonal boundaries

International audience Estimates of the dissipation of subinertial currents due to bottom boundary layer drag at the eastern and western boundaries of the North Atlantic ocean, between 15 N and 60 N, are computed using data from the world's largest archive of ocean current meter time series. We...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Main Authors: Wright, C. J., Scott, R. B., Arbic, B. K., Furnival, D. F.
Other Authors: 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), University of Texas at Austin Austin, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Michigan System-University of Michigan System
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2012
Subjects:
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-00715143
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JC007702
Description
Summary:International audience Estimates of the dissipation of subinertial currents due to bottom boundary layer drag at the eastern and western boundaries of the North Atlantic ocean, between 15 N and 60 N, are computed using data from the world's largest archive of ocean current meter time series. We show from these data that a significant proportion of such loss in this region is due to dissipation at the western boundary ocean floor via quadratic bottom boundary layer drag, with an estimated 40-60% (31-47 GW) of the wind input power across the whole basin dissipated by this method. We further show that the majority of this dissipation occurs at shallow depths, <500 m; this has significant implications for the power available for abyssal mixing.

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