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Tracing the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model

Tracing the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model
Tracing the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model
The flow which constitutes the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model has been investigated with the help of a particle tracking method. In the region of North Atlantic Deep Water formation a thousand trajectories were calculated backward in time to the point where they upwell from the deep ocean. Both the three-dimensional velocity field and convective overturning have been used for this calculation. Together, the trajectories form a representative picture of the upper branch of the conveyor belt in the model. In the Atlantic Ocean the path and strength (17 Sv) of the conveyor belt in the model are found to be consistent with observations. All trajectories enter the South Atlantic via Drake Passage, as the model does not simulate any Agulhas leakage. Large changes in water masses occur in the South Atlantic midlatitudes and subtropical North Atlantic. Along its path in the Atlantic the water in the conveyor belt is transformed from Antarctic Intermediate Water to Central North Atlantic Water. On the average the timescale on which the water mass characteristics are approximately conserved is only a few years compared to the timescale of 70 years for the conveyor belt to cross the Atlantic. The ventilation of thermocline waters in the South Atlantic midlatitudes is overestimated in the model due to too much convective deepening of the winter mixed layer. As a result the fraction of the conveyor belt water flowing in the surface layer is also overestimated, along with integrated effects of atmospheric forcing. The abnormally strong water mass transformation in the South Atlantic might be related to the absence of Agulhas leakage in the model.
0148-0227
22563-22575
Drijfhout, Sybren S.
a5c76079-179b-490c-93fe-fc0391aacf13
Maier-Reimer, Ernst
341f5ff0-b65d-4a00-9fc3-82358144a708
Mikolajewicz, Uwe
8e6b6210-137c-4339-ae56-af243afa9515
Drijfhout, Sybren S.
a5c76079-179b-490c-93fe-fc0391aacf13
Maier-Reimer, Ernst
341f5ff0-b65d-4a00-9fc3-82358144a708
Mikolajewicz, Uwe
8e6b6210-137c-4339-ae56-af243afa9515

Drijfhout, Sybren S., Maier-Reimer, Ernst and Mikolajewicz, Uwe (1996) Tracing the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101 (C10), 22563-22575. (doi:10.1029/96JC02162).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The flow which constitutes the conveyor belt in the Hamburg large-scale geostrophic ocean general circulation model has been investigated with the help of a particle tracking method. In the region of North Atlantic Deep Water formation a thousand trajectories were calculated backward in time to the point where they upwell from the deep ocean. Both the three-dimensional velocity field and convective overturning have been used for this calculation. Together, the trajectories form a representative picture of the upper branch of the conveyor belt in the model. In the Atlantic Ocean the path and strength (17 Sv) of the conveyor belt in the model are found to be consistent with observations. All trajectories enter the South Atlantic via Drake Passage, as the model does not simulate any Agulhas leakage. Large changes in water masses occur in the South Atlantic midlatitudes and subtropical North Atlantic. Along its path in the Atlantic the water in the conveyor belt is transformed from Antarctic Intermediate Water to Central North Atlantic Water. On the average the timescale on which the water mass characteristics are approximately conserved is only a few years compared to the timescale of 70 years for the conveyor belt to cross the Atlantic. The ventilation of thermocline waters in the South Atlantic midlatitudes is overestimated in the model due to too much convective deepening of the winter mixed layer. As a result the fraction of the conveyor belt water flowing in the surface layer is also overestimated, along with integrated effects of atmospheric forcing. The abnormally strong water mass transformation in the South Atlantic might be related to the absence of Agulhas leakage in the model.

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More information

Published date: January 1996
Organisations: Ocean and Earth Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 349206
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/349206
ISSN: 0148-0227
PURE UUID: 4e5b3c4a-775a-4684-a2d9-8e3ec41f9e91
ORCID for Sybren S. Drijfhout: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5325-7350

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Date deposited: 26 Feb 2013 12:26
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:44

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Author: Ernst Maier-Reimer
Author: Uwe Mikolajewicz

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