Meridional Overturning Circulation Transport Variability at 34.5°S During 2009–2017: Baroclinic and Barotropic Flows and the Dueling Influence of the Boundaries

Meinen, Christopher S.; Speich, Sabrina; Piola, Alberto R.; Ansorge, Isabelle; Campos, Edmo; Kersalé, Marion; Terre, Thierry; Chidichimo, Maria Paz; Lamont, Tarron; Sato, Olga T.; Perez, Renellys C.; Valla, Daniel; van den Berg, Marcel; Le Hénaff, Matthieu; Dong, Shenfu; Garzoli, Silvia L.

doi:10.1029/2018GL077408

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Meridional Overturning Circulation Transport Variability at 34.5°S During 2009–2017: Baroclinic and Barotropic Flows and the Dueling Influence of the Boundaries

2018
By Meinen, Christopher S. ; Speich, Sabrina ; Piola, Alberto R. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Meinen, Christopher S. ; Speich, Sabrina ; Piola, Alberto R. ; Ansorge, Isabelle ; Campos, Edmo ; Kersalé, Marion ; Terre, Thierry ; Chidichimo, Maria Paz ; Lamont, Tarron ; Sato, Olga T. ; Perez, Renellys C. ; Valla, Daniel ; van den Berg, Marcel ; Le Hénaff, Matthieu ; Dong, Shenfu ; Garzoli, Silvia L.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; AOML (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) ; CPO (Climate Program Office) ; CIMAS (Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies)
Description:

Six years of simultaneous moored observations near the western and eastern boundaries of the South Atlantic are combined with satellite winds to produce a daily time series of the basin‐wide meridional overturning circulation (MOC) volume transport at 34.5°S. The results demonstrate that barotropic and baroclinic signals at both boundaries cause significant transport variations, and as such must be concurrently observed. The data, spanning ~20 months during 2009–2010 and ~4 years during 2013–2017, reveal a highly energetic MOC record with a temporal standard deviation of 8.3 Sv, and strong variations at time scales ranging from a few days to years (peak‐to‐peak range = 54.6 Sv). Seasonal transport variations are found to have both semiannual (baroclinic) and annual (Ekman and barotropic) timescales. Interannual MOC variations result from both barotropic and baroclinic changes, with density profile changes at the eastern boundary having the largest impact on the year‐to‐year variations.
Keywords:

Ocean-atmosphere interaction
Source:

Geophysical Research Letters 45(9): 4180-4188 2018
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077408
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA15OAR4310088 ; Grant no. NA13OAR4310131 ; Grant no. NA10OAR4320143
Place as Subject:

Atlantic Ocean
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:5969470d53dbb300f7539c7c06e481b5486306f20c9c06659b8d92034c871946
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/28210/noaa_28210_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 1.82 MB ]

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