Abstract
A model of abyssal, subthermocline flow is presented for a basin in which a peninsula intrudes into the basin. The effect of the peninsula is to provide two “eastern” boundaries for the total basin. The latitude-independent baroclinic pressure and density anomalies on both these boundaries are determined by integral conditions, which generalize earlier work.
The peninsula also produces a zonal jet between the tip of the peninsula and the western boundary. The baroclinic transport of this current is related to the blocking of westward propagating Rossby waves from the basin's eastern boundary. The baroclinic structure of this current, as well as the interior flow and the western boundary currents, are determined in terms of the distribution of deep-water sources on the perimeter of the basin as well as by the spatial distribution of upwelling into the thermocline. For the zonal jet, boundary currants and interior the flow is strongly baroclinic. Especially in the interior, the baroclinic Stommel-Arons flow is only a small residual obtained by vertically averaging the motion.
The upper part of the water column responds strongly to the upwelling forcing, and the lower part of the water column is more strongly influenced by the structure and distribution of the sources. The strong recirculation, which is only weakly coupled to the structure of the sources, renders the total vertical structure of the predicted flow more complex than that of the sources.
