The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes
The influence of changing the mean wind stress felt by the ocean through alteration of the variability of the atmospheric wind, as opposed to the mean atmospheric wind, on Southern Ocean circulation is investigated using an idealised channel model. Strongly varying atmospheric wind is found to incre...
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Online Access: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/ https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/1/mundayzhai.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 |
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ftuniveastangl:oai:ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk:63522 2023-05-15T18:24:38+02:00 The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes Munday, David R. Zhai, Xiaoming 2017-07 application/pdf https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/ https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/1/mundayzhai.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 en eng https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/1/mundayzhai.pdf Munday, David R. and Zhai, Xiaoming (2017) The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes. Ocean Modelling, 115. 14–26. ISSN 1463-5003 doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 cc_by_nc_nd CC-BY-NC-ND Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftuniveastangl https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 2023-01-30T21:46:26Z The influence of changing the mean wind stress felt by the ocean through alteration of the variability of the atmospheric wind, as opposed to the mean atmospheric wind, on Southern Ocean circulation is investigated using an idealised channel model. Strongly varying atmospheric wind is found to increase the (parameterised) near-surface viscous and diffusive mixing. Analysis of the kinetic energy budget indicates a change in the main energy dissipation mechanism. For constant wind stress, dissipation of the power input by surface wind work is always dominated by bottom kinetic energy dissipation. However, with time-varying atmospheric wind, near surface viscous dissipation of kinetic energy becomes increasingly important as mean wind stress increases. This increased vertical diffusivity leads to thicker mixed layers and higher sensitivity of the residual circulation to increasing wind stress, when compared to equivalent experiments with the same wind stress held constant in time. This may have implications for Southern Ocean circulation in different climate change scenarios should the variability of the atmospheric wind change rather than the mean atmospheric wind. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean University of East Anglia: UEA Digital Repository Southern Ocean Ocean Modelling 115 14 26 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of East Anglia: UEA Digital Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftuniveastangl |
language |
English |
description |
The influence of changing the mean wind stress felt by the ocean through alteration of the variability of the atmospheric wind, as opposed to the mean atmospheric wind, on Southern Ocean circulation is investigated using an idealised channel model. Strongly varying atmospheric wind is found to increase the (parameterised) near-surface viscous and diffusive mixing. Analysis of the kinetic energy budget indicates a change in the main energy dissipation mechanism. For constant wind stress, dissipation of the power input by surface wind work is always dominated by bottom kinetic energy dissipation. However, with time-varying atmospheric wind, near surface viscous dissipation of kinetic energy becomes increasingly important as mean wind stress increases. This increased vertical diffusivity leads to thicker mixed layers and higher sensitivity of the residual circulation to increasing wind stress, when compared to equivalent experiments with the same wind stress held constant in time. This may have implications for Southern Ocean circulation in different climate change scenarios should the variability of the atmospheric wind change rather than the mean atmospheric wind. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Munday, David R. Zhai, Xiaoming |
spellingShingle |
Munday, David R. Zhai, Xiaoming The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
author_facet |
Munday, David R. Zhai, Xiaoming |
author_sort |
Munday, David R. |
title |
The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
title_short |
The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
title_full |
The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
title_fullStr |
The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
title_full_unstemmed |
The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
title_sort |
impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of southern ocean circulation to wind stress changes |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/ https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/1/mundayzhai.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63522/1/mundayzhai.pdf Munday, David R. and Zhai, Xiaoming (2017) The impact of atmospheric storminess on the sensitivity of Southern Ocean circulation to wind stress changes. Ocean Modelling, 115. 14–26. ISSN 1463-5003 doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_nd |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.05.005 |
container_title |
Ocean Modelling |
container_volume |
115 |
container_start_page |
14 |
op_container_end_page |
26 |
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1766205366225338368 |