Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic
A transatlantic CTD/ADCP section nominally located at 11°N was carried out in March 1989. In this paper relative geostrophic velocities are computed from these data via the thermal wind balance, with reference level choices based primarly on water mass distributions. A brief overview of the meridion...
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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/616 2023-05-15T17:13:51+02:00 Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. 11°N Tropical North Atlantic 1993-01 3857032 bytes application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1912/616 en_US eng Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WHOI Technical Reports WHOI-93-06 WHOI Theses Friedrichs, M. A. M. (1993). Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/616 doi:10.1575/1912/616 Friedrichs, M. A. M. (1993). Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 doi:10.1575/1912/616 Meridional circulation Heat transport-meridional Technical Report Thesis 1993 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 2022-05-28T22:56:57Z A transatlantic CTD/ADCP section nominally located at 11°N was carried out in March 1989. In this paper relative geostrophic velocities are computed from these data via the thermal wind balance, with reference level choices based primarly on water mass distributions. A brief overview of the meridional circulation of the upper waters resulting from these analysis techniques is presented. Schematic circulation patterns of the NADW and AAW are also presented. In both the western and eastern basins these waters are characterized by cyclonic recirculation gyres. A paricularly notable result of the deep western basin analysis is the negligible net flow of middle NADW. Although the horizontal circulation patterns described in this study agree well with results from many previous studies, the meridional overturning cell and net heat flux are considerably lower, while the net freshwater flux is slightly higher than previous estimates. These discrepancies may be attbuted to: (1) differences in methodologies, (2) the increased resolution of this section, and (3) temporal (including decadal, synoptic, and most importantly, seasonal) variability. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation through Grant Nos. OCE-8716314 and OCE-9101636 and the Office of Naval Research through the American Society for Engineering Education. Report NADW North Atlantic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Western Basin Woods Hole, MA |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Meridional circulation Heat transport-meridional |
spellingShingle |
Meridional circulation Heat transport-meridional Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
Meridional circulation Heat transport-meridional |
description |
A transatlantic CTD/ADCP section nominally located at 11°N was carried out in March 1989. In this paper relative geostrophic velocities are computed from these data via the thermal wind balance, with reference level choices based primarly on water mass distributions. A brief overview of the meridional circulation of the upper waters resulting from these analysis techniques is presented. Schematic circulation patterns of the NADW and AAW are also presented. In both the western and eastern basins these waters are characterized by cyclonic recirculation gyres. A paricularly notable result of the deep western basin analysis is the negligible net flow of middle NADW. Although the horizontal circulation patterns described in this study agree well with results from many previous studies, the meridional overturning cell and net heat flux are considerably lower, while the net freshwater flux is slightly higher than previous estimates. These discrepancies may be attbuted to: (1) differences in methodologies, (2) the increased resolution of this section, and (3) temporal (including decadal, synoptic, and most importantly, seasonal) variability. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation through Grant Nos. OCE-8716314 and OCE-9101636 and the Office of Naval Research through the American Society for Engineering Education. |
format |
Report |
author |
Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. |
author_facet |
Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. |
author_sort |
Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. |
title |
Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
title_short |
Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
title_full |
Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic |
title_sort |
meridional circulation in the tropical north atlantic |
publisher |
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
publishDate |
1993 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/616 |
op_coverage |
11°N Tropical North Atlantic |
geographic |
Western Basin |
geographic_facet |
Western Basin |
genre |
NADW North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
NADW North Atlantic |
op_source |
Friedrichs, M. A. M. (1993). Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 doi:10.1575/1912/616 |
op_relation |
WHOI Technical Reports WHOI-93-06 WHOI Theses Friedrichs, M. A. M. (1993). Meridional circulation in the tropical North Atlantic. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/616 doi:10.1575/1912/616 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/616 |
op_publisher_place |
Woods Hole, MA |
_version_ |
1766071042289172480 |