首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 797 毫秒
1.
The steady state wind-driven circulation in an immiscible three-layer ocean bounded only by a meridional east coast and a flat bottom is studied. Particular attention is paid to the occurrence of internal modes of motions in the Sverdrup transports (Sverdrup, 1947). The thicknesses of the upper two layers are of the same order and are allowed to vary up to the same order as the layer thicknesses themselves. Frictional transfer of momentum across the interfaces and the frictional boundary layer at the east coast are neglected. An eastward flow is obtained in the uppermost layer at lower middle latitudes. Though the particular feature in the wind-stress distribution as revealed byYoshida andKidokoro (1967a, 1967b) is not taken into account, the results show good agreement with the observed flow pattern of the Subtropical Countercurrent. Beneath the Subtropical Countercurrent a westward flow is predicted. These flows exhibit an internal mode of motions associated with a subsurface thermal front.  相似文献   

2.
Variations of the western boundary currents induced by a periodic change in wind stress are studied in a two-layer model with a continental slope along the western boundary. The variation of the total transport of the western boundary current over the continental slope shows a considerable phase lag with the wind stress and a decrease in amplitude compared with for the flat bottom ocean, though the interior barotropic response is to adjust almost instantaneously to the wind stress. The total transport variation of the western boundary current is well approximated by the upper layer transport variation. That is, almost complete separation of the upper- and lower-layer flows takes place over the slope, and only the upper layer flow contributes to the change in total transport of the western boundary current. Contributions of the interior barotropic and baroclinic responses to the upper layer transport variation depend on the forcing period. With decrease in the forcing period, the barotropic response becomes relatively important for determining the upper layer transport variation although the amplitude of the variation is smaller.  相似文献   

3.
The western boundary layer (WBL) plays a fundamental role in basin-scale wind-driven ocean circulations. In idealized ocean models with flat bottom topography, this layer is required not only to balance the interior Sverdrup transport to close the gyre circulation, but also to dissipate the vorticity imposed by the wind-stress curl. The width of the WBL in Munk-type models is estimated to be δM(AH/β)1/3, where AH and β are horizontal eddy viscosity and the meridional derivative of the Coriolis parameter respectively. For commonly used values of AH, the boundary-layer width δM ranges from 30 to less than 200 km in the mid-latitude ocean. This scale is often poorly resolved in large-scale climate models.This paper intends to demonstrate some consequences when the western boundary layer is not adequately resolved. It is found that coarse resolution models reach equilibrium states by distorting some important dynamics in order to dissipate wind-imposed vorticity. In three-dimensional models, for instance, very strong spurious upwelling and downwelling can occur along the WBL. In models of two-dimensional flow, however, spurious recirculations may develop near the boundary. These false features can be removed when the boundary layer is better resolved. We propose a method in which a spatially varying AH is used to broaden the WBL without affecting mixing in the interior. The method improves the model results considerably.  相似文献   

4.
On the assumption that motions of the barotropic mode are horizontally nondivergent, action of the wind stress with longshore variation on a two-layer ocean adjacent to the meridional east coast is studied. Only the equatorward wind stress is considered. Along the east coast, upwelling is induced by the direct effect of the coast and is confined in a narrow strip with the width of the order of the internal radius of deformation. The upwelling propagates poleward with the internal gravity wave speed. Coastal upwelling induced by the wind stress with longshore variation may be interpreted as the generation and propagation of internal Kelvin waves. Associated with the coastal upwelling, the equatorward flow in the upper layer and the poleward flow in the lower layer are formed as an internal mode of motions. When the bottom topography with the continental shelf and slope is taken into account, occurrence of the poleward undercurrent is delayed by a few days because of the generation of continental shelf waves. And, after the forcing is stopped, the shelf waves propagate poleward away from the upwelling region and the poleward undercurrent fully develops. At the margin of the continental shelf, another upwelling region is induced and propagates poleward.  相似文献   

5.
《Ocean Modelling》2011,40(3-4):416-424
Eden and Olbers have discussed the relationship between bottom pressure torque and bolus velocity in the western boundary current using the vertically truncated BARBI model approach. Here we revisit this issue using the much simpler residual mean framework. The central role played by a density equation that is linearised about a state of rest is discussed, as well as mechanisms required to maintain the baroclinicity of the western boundary current. We conclude that in the framework being considered by Eden and Olbers, frictional processes must play an important role in the western boundary current dynamics, otherwise the baroclinicity of the current is completely removed by the cross-front mixing effect of the eddies. We also derive the form of the Stommel equation obtained by Eden and Olbers in a manner which clarifies the approximations made by these authors. We argue that for their analysis to be valid, the flow must be concentrated in a shallow layer compared to the ocean depth, there must be no density structure at the sea floor, and any overturning circulation, whether directly wind-driven or as a part of the global thermohaline circulation, must be much smaller than the western boundary current transport.  相似文献   

6.
The present study investigates the way an ocean filled with homogeneous warm water is cooled by prescribing cold water formation inside the ocean in the southern part of the southern hemisphere using multi-level numerical models. Cooling of the whole ocean starts with introduction of the cold water from the formation region into the deepest part of the ocean in the equatorial and eastern boundary regions by Kelvin wave-type density currents. The cold water along the eastern boundary extends westward as a Rossby wave-type density current setting up an interior poleward flow, and hits the western boundary to form a northward flowing boundary current in the northern hemisphere. Only then does the western boundary current cross the equator. Cooling of the rest of the ocean basin is accomplished by upwellings in the interior and also along the coasts. During this introduction the cold water is mixed with surrounding warm waters, and the thermocline, rather than forming just below the top level where heating is imposed, tends to spread down to deeper depths. Consequently the circulation at a steady state has a significant vertical structure such that the maximum upwelling in the interior occurs in the mid-depths, and only the deeper part of the deep ocean yields the Stommel and Arons circulation pattern. In the equatorial region higher vertical mode motions dominate, and a set of alternating zonal jets forms along the equator.  相似文献   

7.
A steady quasi-geostrophic 2.5-layer model, forced by both Ekman pumping and a mass source/sink situated at the western boundary has been constructed to investigate the effect of diapycnal transport due to convection in the Okhotsk Sea and tidal mixing at the Kuril Straits on the intermediate layer in the North Pacific. The model illustrates a combined effect of the wind-driven and mass-driven circulations. First, net mass input induces a “barotropic” mode inter-gyre flow along the western boundary through the dynamical influence of Kelvin waves. This flow creates characteristic curves (geostrophic contours) that facilitate inter-gyre communication through the western boundary layer from the location of the mass source to the subtropical gyre. Due to the effect of wind-driven circulation, the offshore part turns eastward into the interior, encircles the outer rim of the region (which would otherwise be the pool region in the absence of mass input), and then encounters the western boundary. Eventually, the water fed into the lower layer flows mostly along this path and later flows away to the equatorial region. Conversely, in the upper layer, water is fed from the equator to the subtropics, and to the subpolar interior region through the western boundary current. The water then circulates along the outer rim and is absorbed into the mass sink. The model is controlled mainly by three nondimensional parameters: (1) the ratio of net mass input rate to the maximum Sverdrup transport (Q/T Sv max ), which affects the inter-gyre communication by altering the paths of geostrophic contours, (2) the ratio of a mass input rate into the lower layer to that in total (Q 2/Q), which controls the vertical structure of the inter-gyre flow, and (3) the measure of the wind forcing effect relative to the β effect, which determines the horizontal extent of the area influenced by the mass input. The other parameter regimes with respect to Q/T Sv max and Q 2/Q are also presented.  相似文献   

8.
To investigate effects of a continental slope along the western boundary on the abyssal circulation, numerical experiments using multi-level models were carried out. An ocean which extends over the northern and southern hemispheres is forced by cooling inside the ocean at the southwest corner of the basin and uniform heating through the sea surface. When the reference density for the cooling is vertically uniform, effects of the slope emerge clearly for the slope with considerably broad width. The deep western boundary current flowing over the slope feeds no bottom flows in the southern hemisphere, and carries the warmed deep water into the northern hemisphere. This leads to the increased meridional density gradient, which results in the modification of deep flow patterns. When the reference density is vertically distributed, the upper and lower northward flowing western boundary currents form in the deep layer. As the density stratification relaxes the topographic control, the westward intensification of the upper boundary current is achieved over the slope. The intensified flow is accompanied by the countercurrent and they form the horizontal recirculation over the slope. However, the effects are confined around the slope region and the interior flow patterns do not change. The lower boundary current is not significantly affected by the slope and has the large width with no countercurrent. It is found that the actual continental slope does not have significant effects on the gross feature of the thermohaline circulation.  相似文献   

9.
Circulations associated with the Indonesian Throughflow (IT), particularly concerning subsurface currents in the Pacific Ocean, are studied using three types of models: a linear, continuously stratified (LCS) model and a nonlinear, -layer model (LOM), both confined to the Indo-Pacific basin; and a global, ocean general circulation model (COCO). Solutions are wind forced, and obtained with both open and closed Indonesian passages. Layers 1-4 of LOM correspond to near-surface, thermocline, subthermocline (thermostad), and upper-intermediate (AAIW) water, respectively, and analogous layers are defined for COCO.The three models share a common dynamics. When the Indonesian passages are abruptly opened, barotropic and baroclinic waves radiate into the interiors of both oceans. The steady-state, barotropic flow field from the difference (open − closed) solution is an anticlockwise circulation around the perimeter of the southern Indian Ocean, with its meridional branches confined to the western boundaries of both oceans. In contrast, steady-state, baroclinic flows extend into the interiors of both basins, a consequence of damping of baroclinic waves by diapycnal processes (internal diffusion, upwelling and subduction, and convective overturning). Deep IT-associated currents are the subsurface parts of these baroclinic flows. In the Pacific, they tend to be directed eastward and poleward, extend throughout the basin, and are closed by upwelling in the eastern ocean and Subpolar Gyre. Smaller-scale aspects of their structure vary significantly among the models, depending on the nature of their diapycnal mixing.At the exit to the Indonesian Seas, the IT is highly surface trapped in all the models, with a prominent, deep core in the LCS model and in LOM. The separation into two cores is due to near-equatorial, eastward-flowing, subsurface currents in the Pacific Ocean, which drain layer 2 and layer 3 waters from the western ocean to supply water for the upwelling regions in the eastern ocean; indeed, depending on the strength and parameterization of vertical diffusion in the Pacific interior, the draining can be strong enough that layer 3 water flows from the Indian to Pacific Ocean. The IT in COCO lacks a significant deep core, likely because the model’s coarse bottom topography has no throughflow passage below 1000 m. Consistent with observations, water in the near-surface (deep) core comes mostly from the northern (southern) hemisphere, a consequence of the wind-driven circulation in the tropical North Pacific being mostly confined to the upper ocean; as a result, it causes the near-surface current along the New Guinea coast to retroflect eastward, but has little impact on the deeper New Guinea undercurrent.In the South Pacific, the IT-associated flow into the basin is spread roughly uniformly throughout all four layers, a consequence of downwelling processes in the Indian Ocean. The inflow first circulates around the Subtropical Gyre, and then bends northward at the Australian coast to flow to the equator within the western boundary currents. To allow for this additional, northward transport, the bifurcation latitude of the South Equatorial Current shifts southward when the Indonesian passages are open. The shift is greater at depth (layers 3 and 4), changing from about 14°S when the passages are closed to 19°S when they are open and, hence, accounting for the northward-flowing Great Barrier Reef Undercurrent in that latitude range.After flowing along the New Guinea coast, most waters in layers 1-3 bend offshore to join the North Equatorial Countercurrent, Equatorial Undercurrent, and southern Tsuchiya Jet, respectively, thereby ensuring that northern hemisphere waters contribute significantly to the IT. In contrast, much of the layer 4 water directly exits the basin via the IT, but some also flows into the subpolar North Pacific. Except for the direct layer 4 outflow, all other IT-associated waters circulate about the North Pacific before they finally enter the Indonesian Seas via the Mindanao Current.  相似文献   

10.
A numerical experiment is made using a barotropic model for the western boundary currents. The time-dependent, non-linear vorticity equation is integrated with and without the variable of bottom topography. The inertial and frictional boundary flow is resolved with a fine grid size of 10 km. Connection of the western boundary currents with the general circulation is facilitated by giving the fixed Sverdrup transport at the eastern boundary of the model (400 km offshore).For the flat bottom topography, steady flow forRe=35 shows dynamical balance essentially of a frictional model. The transient response leading to the formation of the western boundary currents in the model seems to support theLighthill's theory (1969). ForRe=350, unsteady features revealed byBryan (1963) is re-established. A phenomenon of barotropic instability is also observed with sufficient resolution. For the model with a continental slope the steady flow is also obtained forRe=35. The boundary currents flow over the continental slope, deviating offshore as they flow northward.  相似文献   

11.
A high-resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of the coastal region from 22.5°S to 35°S of the Chile Current System to both equatorward and climatological wind forcing. The results from both types of forcing show that an equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, filaments and eddies develop in response to the predominant equatorward wind forcing. When climatological wind forcing is used, an offshore branch of the equatorward surface current is also generated. These features are consistent with available observations of the Chile Current System. The model results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for generating currents, eddies and filaments in the Chile eastern boundary current system and in other eastern boundary current regions which have predominantly equatorward wind forcing.  相似文献   

12.
Hydrographic data show that the meridional deep current at 47°N is weak and southward in northeastern North Pacific; the strong northward current expected for an upwelling in a flat-bottom ocean is absent. This may imply that the eastward-rising bottom slope in the Northeast Pacific Basin contributes to the overturning circulation. After analysis of observational data, we examine the bottom-slope effect using models in which deep water enters the lower deep layer, upwells to the upper deep layer, and exits laterally. The analytical model is based on geostrophic hydrostatic balance, Sverdrup relation, and vertical advection–diffusion balance of density, and incorporates a small bottom slope and an eastward-increasing upwelling. Due to the sloping bottom, current in the lower deep layer intensifies bottomward, and the intensification is weaker for larger vertical eddy diffusivity (K V), weaker stratification, and smaller eastward increase in upwelling. Varying the value of K V changes the vertical structure and direction of the current; the current is more barotropic and flows further eastward as K V increases. The eastward current is reproduced with the numerical model that incorporates the realistic bottom-slope gradient and includes boundary currents. The interior current flows eastward primarily, runs up the bottom slope, and produces an upwelling. The eastward current has a realistic volume transport that is similar to the net inflow, unlike the large northward current for a flat bottom. The upwelling water in the upper deep layer flows southward and then westward in the southern region, although it may partly upwell further into the intermediate layer.  相似文献   

13.
"西边界潜流(WBUC)"是海洋环流中的重要现象,与表层环流相比,对次表层潜流的结构认识不足。本文利用SODA、OFES和ARGO资料,分析了北太平洋中的棉兰老潜流(MUC)和吕宋潜流(LUC)、南太平洋中的大堡礁潜流(GBRUC)和东澳大利亚潜流(EAUC)及南印度洋中的阿加勒斯潜流(AUC)的气候态空间分布特征,并且根据地转流反向的判据,分析WBUC的发生条件。  相似文献   

14.
In order to fulfill the no-slip condition at the western and eastern boundaries of the ocean basin, introduced "effective wind stress", which has much larger spatial variations towards the boundaries than in the ocean interior. The effective wind stress can thus be decomposed into spatially slow-varying and fast varying components. Careful scale analysis on the classical Munk winddriven ocean circulation theory, which consists of the interior Sverdrup flow and the western boundary current but of no eastern boundary current, shows that the wind stress curl appearing in the Sverdrup equation must have negligible spatial variations. In the present model the spatially slow-varying component of the wind stress appears in the Sverdrup equation, and the spatially fastvarying component becomes the forcing term of the boundary equations. As a result, in addition to the classical Munk solution the present model has an extra term at the western boundary which (Northern Hemisphere) increases the northward transport as well as the southward return transport, and has a term at the eastern boundary corresponding to the eastern boundary current.  相似文献   

15.
16.
The timing and intensity of the effects of the 1997–98 El Niño on sea-surface temperature (SST) and coastal sea level along the US west coast are examined using in situ time-series measurements, and the effects on upper ocean currents on the continental shelf and slope off Oregon and northern California are examined using repeated shipborne ADCP transects, a mid-shelf mooring off Newport Oregon and an HF surface current radar. An initial transient positive anomaly was observed in both adjusted sea level and SST during May–June 1997, followed by anomalously high coastal sea levels, generally strongest during September 1997 through February 1998 and abruptly returned to normal in late February 1998, and by positive temperatures anomalies over the mid-shelf that persisted longer, into April 1998. Low-frequency coastal sea-level anomalies propagated poleward at 2.1 m/s. Poleward flow over the shelf and slope was enhanced at most depths during the El Niño, compared with following years. Northward currents in the upper 12 m over the continental shelf off Newport, Oregon averaged 13.7 cm/s stronger during August 1997 through February 1998 than during the same period the following year. Enhanced poleward flow was present at all latitudes sampled during November 1997 and February 1998, particularly over the continental slope. These transects also provided clear views of a fall/winter equatorward undercurrent, which was both strongest and had the most alongshore similarity of form, during the ENSO. Finally, subsurface-intensified anticyclonic eddies originating in the poleward undercurrent appear to be a recurrent feature of the circulation off Newport late in the upwelling season.  相似文献   

17.
Branching of the Tsushima Current in the Japan Sea   总被引:4,自引:0,他引:4  
Three branches of the Tsushima Current are reproduced in a numerical model, and their formation mechanisms are studied. Two types of a two-layer, inflow-outflow model with a bottom slope along the Japanese coast are used. One has a bottom slope only in the lower layer (Model A), and the other has bottom slopes in both layers (Model B). Model B represents the typical situation in the Japan Sea, i.e., the main pycnocline intersects the bottom slope. The onshore side of the line where the pycnocline intersects the bottom slope has only one layer in Model B. Seasonal variation of inflow in the upper layer of the western half in the entrance section (the Tsushima Strait) is incorporated into the model.Three branches are formed in Model B and not in Model A. The first branch is the bottom-controlled steady current due to the topographic-effect on the upper-layer slope which exists in the one-layer region along the Japanese coast. The second branch is a temporal current which is formed along the offshore edge of the coastal one-layer region in association with the variation of inflow. The third branch is the steady western boundary current due to the planetary-effect. These results compare favorably with observations in Part I of this study.The mechanism of formation of the second branch is examined in detail. This branch is caused by the propagation of the lowest two modes of the upper shelf wave caused by the topographic-effect on the upper-layer slope which are generated by the significant increase in inflow from June to August.  相似文献   

18.
This paper reviews recent progress and problems in modeling the thermohaline circulation of the world ocean by use of z-coordinate ocean general circulation models. Discussions focus on four issues: sea surface forcing, mixing in the deep ocean interior, eddy-induced tracer transport, and bottom boundary layer processes. Although some widely used techniques and parameterizations deal with these issues, some aspects are still overlooked and more sophistication is certainly required. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

19.
A hydrographic survey and a 25-hour stationary observation were carried out in the western part of Suo-Nada in the summer of 1998 to elucidate the formation mechanism of the oxygen-deficient water mass. A steep thermocline and halocline separated the upper layer water from the bottom water over the observational area except for near the Kanmon Strait. The bottom water, in comparison with the upper layer water, indicated lower temperature, higher salinity, lower dissolved oxygen, higher turbidity, and higher chlorophyll a. Turbidity in the upper layer water changed with semi-diurnal period while the bottom water turbidity showed a quarter-diurnal variation, though the M2 tidal current prevailed in both waters. From the turbidity distribution and the current variation, it is revealed that the turbidity in the upper layer water is controlled by the advection due to the M2 tidal current. On the other hand, the quarter-diurnal variation in the bottom water turbidity is caused by the resuspension of bottom sediments due to the M2 tidal current. The steep thermocline and halocline were maintained throughout the observation period in spite of the rather strong tidal currents. This implies an active intrusion of the low temperature and high salinity water from the east to the bottom of Suo-Nada. Based on the observational results, a hypothesis on the oxygen-deficient water mass formation was proposed; the periodical turbidity variation in the bottom water quickly modifies the oxygen-rich water in the east to the oxygen-deficient bottom water in Suo-Nada in a course of circulation.  相似文献   

20.
Mixed and mixing layer depths simulated by an OGCM   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
The global distributions of the mixed layer depth h D , representing the depth of uniform density, and the mixing layer depth h K , representing the depth of active turbulent mixing, were simulated using an ocean general circulation model (OGCM), and compared with each other, as well as with the mixed layer depth from the climatological data h D *. The comparison between h D and h D * suggested that the threshold density difference Δ σ θ should decrease from 0.09 kg m−3 to 0.02 kg m−3 with increasing latitude for consistent comparison between two mixed layer depths, due to the different nature of density profiles depending on latitude. The comparison between h D and h K revealed that h K is deeper than h D in the region where strong subsurface shear is present, such as the equatorial ocean and the region of the western boundary current. On the other hand, h K is shallower than h D in the high latitude ocean during convective cooling and early restratification.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号