1 / 52

Boundary Currents and Interbasin Flows

Boundary Currents and Interbasin Flows. Harry L. Bryden Southampton Oceanography Centre. Outline. 1. Boundary Current Measurements 2. Issues 3. What Sets the Transports. Issues. 1. What causes fluctuation in boundary current transport?. Issues.

mackmartinez
Download Presentation

Boundary Currents and Interbasin Flows

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Boundary Currents and Interbasin Flows Harry L. Bryden Southampton Oceanography Centre Outline 1. Boundary Current Measurements 2. Issues 3. What Sets the Transports

  2. Issues 1. What causes fluctuation in boundary current transport?

  3. Issues 1. What causes fluctuation in boundary current transport? Barotropic velocities represent the favourite answer. BUT there has not yet been a comprehensive study of the variability in baroclinic structure over weekly to annual time scales.

  4. Issues 2. Can the transport be estimated from a synoptic section referenced to current meter measurement?

  5. Issues 2. Can the transport be estimated from a synoptic section referenced to current meter measurement? Yes, but it is a synoptic transport estimate that may have little to do with the long-term boundary current transport.

  6. Issues 3. Is there a reference level?

  7. Issues 3. Is there a reference level? Yes but the reference level velocity is not necessarily a zero velocity surface.

  8. Issues 4. Are the boundary current transports useful for defining the basin-scale circulation?

  9. Baringer and Larsen (2001) Florida Straits Transport

  10. Issues 4. Are the boundary current transports useful for defining the basin-scale circulation? Yes, without question.

  11. What Sets the Transports 1. Thermocline Western Boundary Currents

  12. What Sets the Transports 1. Thermocline Western Boundary Currents Primary answer is Sverdrup transport--wind stress curl--which gives the right sign and right order of magnitude. But, there is information about ocean circulation in the amount by which western boundary current transports are larger or smaller than Sverdrup transport.

  13. What Sets the Transports 2. Northward Flow of Bottom Water

  14. What Sets the Transports 2. Northward Flow of Bottom Water Area of ocean sets the ratios implying that mixing is the controlling factor.

  15. What Sets the Transports 3. Indonesian Throughflow

  16. What Sets the Transports 3. Indonesian Throughflow Wind stress and wind stress curl.

  17. What Sets the Transports 4. Antarctic Circumpolar Current .

  18. What Sets the Transports 4. Antarctic Circumpolar Current Wind stress, square root of wind stress, wind stress curl.

  19. What Sets the Transports 5. Upwelling around Antarctica

  20. What Sets the Transports 5. Upwelling around Antarctica Eddies ultimately set up by wind stress.

  21. What Sets the Transports 6. Northward Flow across the Equator

  22. What Sets the Transports 6. Northward Flow across the Equator Pressure gradient > Wind Stress in Southern Hemisphere Pressure gradient < Wind Stress in Northern Hemisphere

More Related