The nested structure of Arctic thermohaline intrusions |
| |
| Institution: | 1. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 930 Koyukuk Dr. P.O. Box 75-7335, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA;2. Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, British Columbia, V8L 4B2, Canada;1. Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Istanbul, Maslak 34469, Istanbul, Turkey;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Marmara University, Göztepe 34722, Istanbul, Turkey;1. Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Anavyssos, 46.7 km Athens Sounio ave., P.O. Box 712, Attiki, 19013, Greece;2. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany;1. Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 712, GR-19013 Anavyssos, Greece;2. National Technical University of Athens, Department of Physics, Zografou Campus, GR-15780 Athens, Greece;1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, PR China;2. Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, PR China;1. KU Leuven, Production Engineering, Machine Design and Automation (PMA) Section, Celestijnenlaan 300b – Box 2420, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium;2. FMTC, Flanders? Mechatronics Technology Centre, Celestijnenlaan 300d – Box 4027, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium |
| |
| Abstract: | Arctic thermohaline intrusions have a “nested” temperature/salinity structure characterized by the lining up of widely separated profiles along a series of well-defined lines in the T–S plane. The nesting pattern is coherent across much of the Arctic Basin (>2000 km), and roughly 90% of the water column between 150 and 350 m depth is found to lie along these nesting lines. We propose the nested structure results from a type of slanted convection occurring within the thick, salt-finger stratified layers in the intrusions. The convection cells are reminiscent of those investigated in laboratory experiments done by Thorpe, Hutt, and Soulsby, and it is estimated that the cells have horizontal dimensions ranging from 50 to 100 km at depths close to the Atlantic Water temperature maximum. Simple theoretical ideas suggest the convective cells may appear when the intrusions reach a critical amplitude, driving them toward a nested configuration. Our analysis provides a new estimate of the effective lateral diffusivity due to the intrusions (?50 m2 s?1), as well as an estimate of the vertical diffusivity near the core of the Atlantic Water layer (?0.8×10?5 m2 s?1). |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
