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- Author or Editor: C. Lique x
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Abstract
Correlations between temperature and velocity fluctuations are a significant contribution to the North Atlantic meridional heat transport, especially at the northern boundary of the subtropical gyre. In satellite observations and in a numerical model at ⅞° resolution, a localized pattern of positive eddy heat flux is found northwest of the Gulf Stream, downstream of its separation at Cape Hatteras. It is confined to the upper 500 m. A simple kinematic model of a meandering jet can explain the surface eddy flux, taking into account a spatial shift between the maximum velocity of the jet and the maximum cross-jet temperature gradient. In the Gulf Stream such a spatial shift results from the nonlinear temperature profile and the vertical tilting of the velocity profile with depth. The numerical model suggests that the meandering of the Gulf Stream could account, at least in part, for the large eddy heat transport (of order 0.3 PW) near 36°N in the North Atlantic and for its compensation by the mean flow.
Abstract
Correlations between temperature and velocity fluctuations are a significant contribution to the North Atlantic meridional heat transport, especially at the northern boundary of the subtropical gyre. In satellite observations and in a numerical model at ⅞° resolution, a localized pattern of positive eddy heat flux is found northwest of the Gulf Stream, downstream of its separation at Cape Hatteras. It is confined to the upper 500 m. A simple kinematic model of a meandering jet can explain the surface eddy flux, taking into account a spatial shift between the maximum velocity of the jet and the maximum cross-jet temperature gradient. In the Gulf Stream such a spatial shift results from the nonlinear temperature profile and the vertical tilting of the velocity profile with depth. The numerical model suggests that the meandering of the Gulf Stream could account, at least in part, for the large eddy heat transport (of order 0.3 PW) near 36°N in the North Atlantic and for its compensation by the mean flow.
Abstract
A substantial fraction of the deep ocean is ventilated in the high-latitude North Atlantic. Consequently, the region plays a crucial role in transient climate change through the uptake of carbon dioxide and heat. However, owing to the Lagrangian nature of the process, many aspects of deep Atlantic Ocean ventilation and its representation in climate simulations remain obscure. We investigate the nature of ventilation in the high-latitude North Atlantic in an eddy-permitting numerical ocean circulation model using a comprehensive set of Lagrangian trajectory experiments. Backward-in-time trajectories from a model-defined North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) reveal the locations of subduction from the surface mixed layer at high spatial resolution. The major fraction of NADW ventilation results from subduction in the Labrador Sea, predominantly within the boundary current (~60% of ventilated NADW volume) and a smaller fraction arising from open ocean deep convection (~25%). Subsurface transformations—due in part to the model’s parameterization of bottom-intensified mixing—facilitate NADW ventilation, such that water subducted in the boundary current ventilates all of NADW, not just the lighter density classes. There is a notable absence of ventilation arising from subduction in the Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian Seas, due to the re-entrainment of those waters as they move southward. Taken together, our results emphasize an important distinction between ventilation and dense water formation in terms of the location where each takes place, and their concurrent sensitivities. These features of NADW ventilation are explored to understand how the representation of high-latitude processes impacts properties of the deep ocean in a state-of-the-science numerical simulation.
Abstract
A substantial fraction of the deep ocean is ventilated in the high-latitude North Atlantic. Consequently, the region plays a crucial role in transient climate change through the uptake of carbon dioxide and heat. However, owing to the Lagrangian nature of the process, many aspects of deep Atlantic Ocean ventilation and its representation in climate simulations remain obscure. We investigate the nature of ventilation in the high-latitude North Atlantic in an eddy-permitting numerical ocean circulation model using a comprehensive set of Lagrangian trajectory experiments. Backward-in-time trajectories from a model-defined North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) reveal the locations of subduction from the surface mixed layer at high spatial resolution. The major fraction of NADW ventilation results from subduction in the Labrador Sea, predominantly within the boundary current (~60% of ventilated NADW volume) and a smaller fraction arising from open ocean deep convection (~25%). Subsurface transformations—due in part to the model’s parameterization of bottom-intensified mixing—facilitate NADW ventilation, such that water subducted in the boundary current ventilates all of NADW, not just the lighter density classes. There is a notable absence of ventilation arising from subduction in the Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian Seas, due to the re-entrainment of those waters as they move southward. Taken together, our results emphasize an important distinction between ventilation and dense water formation in terms of the location where each takes place, and their concurrent sensitivities. These features of NADW ventilation are explored to understand how the representation of high-latitude processes impacts properties of the deep ocean in a state-of-the-science numerical simulation.
