Warm Bias and Parameterization of Boundary Upwelling in Ocean Models

Cessi, Paola ; Wolfe, Christopher

关键词: eastern boundary current;    current;    eddies;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1054196
RP-ID  :  Final Report
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1054196

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

It has been demonstrated that Eastern Boundary Currents (EBC) are a baroclinic intensification of the interior circulation of the ocean due to the emergence of mesoscale eddies in response to the sharp buoyancy gradients driven by the wind-stress and the thermal surface forcing. The eddies accomplish the heat and salt transport necessary to insure that the subsurface flow is adiabatic, compensating for the heat and salt transport effected by the mean currents. The EBC thus generated occurs on a cross-shore scale of order 20-100 km, and thus this scale needs to be resolved in climate models in order to capture the meridional transport by the EBC. Our result indicate that changes in the near shore currents on the oceanic eastern boundaries are linked not just to local forcing, such as coastal changes in the winds, but depend on the basin-wide circulation as well.