The ocean's gravitational potential energy budget in a coupled climate model
The ocean's gravitational potential energy budget in a coupled climate model
This study examines, in a unified fashion, the budgets of ocean gravitational potential energy (GPE) and available gravitational potential energy (AGPE) in the control simulation of the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model HadCM3. Only AGPE can be converted into kinetic energy by adiabatic processes. Diapycnal mixing supplies GPE but not AGPE, whereas the reverse is true of the combined effect of surface buoyancy forcing and convection. Mixing and buoyancy forcing thus play complementary roles in sustaining the large-scale circulation. However, the largest globally integrated source of GPE is resolved advection (+0.57 TW) and the largest sink is through parameterized eddy transports (?0.82 TW). The effect of these adiabatic processes on AGPE is identical to their effect on GPE, except for perturbations to both budgets due to numerical leakage exacerbated by nonlinearities in the equation of state.
ocean circulation, gravitational potential energy, energy budget, available gravitational potential energy, diabatic process, adiabatic process
5417-5422
Butler, E.D.
f733346a-4ee5-4781-9cf3-530a64d96a0b
Oliver, K.I.
588b11c6-4d0c-4c59-94e2-255688474987
Gregory, J.M.
3a9353d5-c9ee-4804-a27d-41a3d0ae99b5
Tailleux, R.
f29f3572-63b7-477f-8ecc-20752027a86e
28 October 2013
Butler, E.D.
f733346a-4ee5-4781-9cf3-530a64d96a0b
Oliver, K.I.
588b11c6-4d0c-4c59-94e2-255688474987
Gregory, J.M.
3a9353d5-c9ee-4804-a27d-41a3d0ae99b5
Tailleux, R.
f29f3572-63b7-477f-8ecc-20752027a86e
Butler, E.D., Oliver, K.I., Gregory, J.M. and Tailleux, R.
(2013)
The ocean's gravitational potential energy budget in a coupled climate model.
Geophysical Research Letters, 40 (20), .
(doi:10.1002/2013GL057996).
Abstract
This study examines, in a unified fashion, the budgets of ocean gravitational potential energy (GPE) and available gravitational potential energy (AGPE) in the control simulation of the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model HadCM3. Only AGPE can be converted into kinetic energy by adiabatic processes. Diapycnal mixing supplies GPE but not AGPE, whereas the reverse is true of the combined effect of surface buoyancy forcing and convection. Mixing and buoyancy forcing thus play complementary roles in sustaining the large-scale circulation. However, the largest globally integrated source of GPE is resolved advection (+0.57 TW) and the largest sink is through parameterized eddy transports (?0.82 TW). The effect of these adiabatic processes on AGPE is identical to their effect on GPE, except for perturbations to both budgets due to numerical leakage exacerbated by nonlinearities in the equation of state.
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Published date: 28 October 2013
Keywords:
ocean circulation, gravitational potential energy, energy budget, available gravitational potential energy, diabatic process, adiabatic process
Organisations:
Physical Oceanography
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 360461
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/360461
ISSN: 0094-8276
PURE UUID: 64710d08-6c8d-4686-9c9e-0749a3698ae8
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Date deposited: 10 Dec 2013 11:11
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 15:38
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Contributors
Author:
E.D. Butler
Author:
J.M. Gregory
Author:
R. Tailleux
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