The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895, doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1. The...
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/4038 2023-05-15T16:00:41+02:00 The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current Kida, Shinichiro Price, James F. Yang, Jiayan 2008-04 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4038 en_US eng American Meteorological Society https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4038 doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895 doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 North Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean region Ocean models Mass fluxes/transport Diapycnal mixing Article 2008 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 2022-05-28T22:58:09Z Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895, doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1. The oceanic response to overflows is explored using a two-layer isopycnal model. Overflows enter the open ocean as dense gravity currents that flow along and down the continental slope. While descending the slope, overflows typically double their volume transport by entraining upper oceanic water. The upper oceanic layer must balance this loss of mass, and the resulting convergent flow produces significant vortex stretching. Overflows thus represent an intense and localized mass and vorticity forcing for the upper ocean. In this study, simulations show that the upper ocean responds to the overflow-induced forcing by establishing topographic β plumes that are aligned more or less along isobaths and that have a transport that is typically a few times larger than that of the overflows. For the topographic β plume driven by the Mediterranean overflow, the occurrence of eddies near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, allows the topographic β plume to flow across isobaths. The modeled topographic β-plume circulation forms two transatlantic zonal jets that are analogous to the Azores Current and the Azores Countercurrent. In other cases (e.g., the Denmark Strait overflow), the same kind of circulation remains trapped along the western boundary and hence would not be readily detected. SK’s support during the time of his Ph.D. research in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program was provided by the National Science Foundation through Grant OCE04-24741. JP and JY have also received support from the Climate Process Team on Gravity Current Entrainment, NSF Grant OCE-0611530. Article in Journal/Newspaper Denmark Strait North Atlantic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 4 880 895 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
North Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean region Ocean models Mass fluxes/transport Diapycnal mixing |
spellingShingle |
North Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean region Ocean models Mass fluxes/transport Diapycnal mixing Kida, Shinichiro Price, James F. Yang, Jiayan The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
topic_facet |
North Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean region Ocean models Mass fluxes/transport Diapycnal mixing |
description |
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895, doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1. The oceanic response to overflows is explored using a two-layer isopycnal model. Overflows enter the open ocean as dense gravity currents that flow along and down the continental slope. While descending the slope, overflows typically double their volume transport by entraining upper oceanic water. The upper oceanic layer must balance this loss of mass, and the resulting convergent flow produces significant vortex stretching. Overflows thus represent an intense and localized mass and vorticity forcing for the upper ocean. In this study, simulations show that the upper ocean responds to the overflow-induced forcing by establishing topographic β plumes that are aligned more or less along isobaths and that have a transport that is typically a few times larger than that of the overflows. For the topographic β plume driven by the Mediterranean overflow, the occurrence of eddies near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, allows the topographic β plume to flow across isobaths. The modeled topographic β-plume circulation forms two transatlantic zonal jets that are analogous to the Azores Current and the Azores Countercurrent. In other cases (e.g., the Denmark Strait overflow), the same kind of circulation remains trapped along the western boundary and hence would not be readily detected. SK’s support during the time of his Ph.D. research in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program was provided by the National Science Foundation through Grant OCE04-24741. JP and JY have also received support from the Climate Process Team on Gravity Current Entrainment, NSF Grant OCE-0611530. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kida, Shinichiro Price, James F. Yang, Jiayan |
author_facet |
Kida, Shinichiro Price, James F. Yang, Jiayan |
author_sort |
Kida, Shinichiro |
title |
The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
title_short |
The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
title_full |
The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
title_fullStr |
The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
title_full_unstemmed |
The upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the Azores Current |
title_sort |
upper-oceanic response to overflows : a mechanism for the azores current |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4038 |
genre |
Denmark Strait North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Denmark Strait North Atlantic |
op_source |
Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895 doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 38 (2008): 880–895 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4038 doi:10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JPO3750.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
880 |
op_container_end_page |
895 |
_version_ |
1766396689994743808 |