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The Journal of Marine Research is an online peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research on a broad array of topics in physical, biological, and chemical oceanography. In publication since 1937, it is one of the oldest journals in American marine science and occupies a unique niche within the ocean sciences, with a rich tradition and distinguished history as part of the Sears Foundation for Marine Research at Yale University. Past and current issues are available at journalofmarineresearch.org. Yale University provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes only. Copyright or other proprietary rights to content contained in this document may be held by individuals or entities other than, or in addition to, Yale University. You are solely responsible for determining the ownership of the copyright, and for obtaining permission for your intended use. Yale University makes no warranty that your distribution, reproduction, or other use of these materials will not infringe the rights of third parties. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Journal of Marine Research, Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale University PO Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118 USA (203) 432-3154 fax (203) 432-5872 [email protected] www.journalofmarineresearch.org Journal of MARINE RESEARCH Volume 36, Number 1 Model of world ocean circulation: m. Thermally and wind driven by George Veroois1 ABSTRACT A model of world ocean circulation driven by wind-stresses and differential heating is de- veloped for a two-layer ocean with idealized boundaries and constant depth. The principal focus of the present study is the determination of the magnitudes and locations of localized sources and sinks of upper-layer water. The effect of differential heating is parameterized here by a uniform upwelling of deep water through the interface (thermocline). The magnitude of the upwelling, as well as the locations of the sources and sinks, is determined by specifying the latitudes of separation of the Kuroshio and the East Australian currents. The latter can be deduced if the effects of heating are known, but it seemed preferable to use the (easily identi- fied) separation latitudes to obtain information about the complex thermal processes that exist in the ocean. The mechanism for separation emerged from an earlier study (Veronis, 1973); consequently, the basic physical process is not masked by the specification of the separation latitudes. It is found that about 9 Sverdrups of transport flow eastward from the Atlantic to the Indian to the Pacific to the Atlantic, coming in at the southwestern comer as a deep western boundary current and departing as the vestige of an upper-layer, separated western boundary current at the southeastern extremity of each ocean. The construction of the circulation for each ocean is not uniquely determined by the limited number of constraints invoked here. The actual construction is determined by the assumption that sources or sinks of upper-layer water are introduced only when they are required by the analysis. This assumption leads to a circula- tion in the S. Pacific in which the East Australian Current separates from the coast and flows around New Zealand, part clockwise around the north and the remainder counterclockwise around the south. Where the two branches rejoin, the current separates and flows due east- 1. Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, U.S.A. 2 Journal of Marine Research [36, 1 ward, eventually to supply the Peru and the Cape Hom currents. Heat flux balances (deter- mined by sinking of upper-layer water and upwelling of lower-layer water) are determined for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The calculations are carried out with winter and annual mean winds, with each case treated as if it were a steady-state system. The results show that the N. Pacific tends to absorb heat from the atmosphere and the N. Atlantic tends to release heat to the atmosphere. Hence, in the overall heat balance of the earth, which requires a flux of heat from equatorial to polar regions, the principal oceanic contribution must come from the Atlantic. 1. Introduction Calculations for the circulation driven by wind stresses at the surface of a two- layer model of the world ocean were reported in Part 1 of this series. (V eronis, 1973). Part II (Veronis, 1976) treated the circulation caused by differential heating where the thermal processes are simulated by upwelling across the interface of the two layers and by localized sinking locations in the polar regions of the oceans. The present paper combines the two forcing mechanisms and an attempt is made to derive the locations and magnitudes of the sinks as well as the intensity of the upwelling from a model which is subjected to only a limited number of dynamical constraints. The picture that has been developed in the earlier studies is that the western boundary currents (Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, East Australian, etc.) separate from the coasts because the amount of water that must be transported by these currents is limited by the relative depths of the thermocline on the inshore and offshore edges of the currents. Maximum transport is achieved when the thermocline sur- faces at the coast. If more transport is required by the interior dynamics, the cur- rent separates from the coast to achieve a balance between required interior trans- port and the maximum possible boundary current transport. In the model with both thermal and mechanical driving, separation of the west- ern boundary currents from the coasts is determined by the intensity of thermal driving as well as wind stresses. Thermal driving in the ocean is a complex internal process and the magnitudes of sinking of warm water and upwelling of cold water are normally determined by indirect arguments. Since the mechanism of separation in the two-layer model is fairly straightforward and understandable, we have in- verted the usual procedure and have accepted the separation mechanism as known and have chosen the separation latitudes as simple observables. The magnitudes of the sources and sinks of upper-layer water can then be determined as results of the model when the separation latitudes are specified. Because of the limited number of constraints imposed on the system it is not possible to derive a unique distribution of sources and sinks of upper-layer water. We have, therefore, adopted a procedure in which localized sources or sinks of upper-layer water are introduced only when necessary. This restriction leads to 1978] Veronis: Model of world ocean circulation: III. 3 conservative estimates of exchange of water between the warm and cold layers and, therefore, to conservative estimates of meridional beat flux in the oceans. The separation latitude of the Kuroshio is taken as 35N and that of the East Australian Current as 31S (the latter varies considerably with time and ranges be- tween 27S and 35S so the present choice is an average value). These choices lead to a uniform upwelling velocity, w, across the tbermocline of 1.5 x 10-5 cm/ sec, a value that is remarkably consistent with estimates obtained from totally different arguments. With this choice for w the magnitudes of localized sources and sinks of upper-layer water emerge. Calculations were carried out for the Pacific, treating the system as a steady state for the cases with winter and annual mean wind stresses. With winter winds the balances for upper-layer water are as follows: 9 Sverdrups (Sv) sink at the northern boundary, 8 Sv upwell at 35N where the Kuroshio separates from the coast, 4.5 Sv sink along the east coast of Australia between 31S and 35S, and 9 Sv sink where the Cape Hom Current transports water to the tip of S. America. Uniform upwell- ing through the thermocline accounts for about 15 Sv. Thus, 9 Sv of deep water must enter the Pacific, be converted to upper-layer water and leave the Pacific at the southeast comer as the Cape Hom Current. Associated with this source-sink distribution is the fact that the North Pacific as a whole acts as a heat sink; it ab- sorbs heat at the rate of 1021 g cal/yr from the atmosphere (upwelling exceeds sink- ing). Hence, according to this calculation with winter winds, the North Pacific contributes negatively to the northward heat flux required by the radiation balance for the earth. The corresponding calculation with annual mean winds was made for only the North Pacific. The sink at the northern boundary is 9.3 Sv but upwelling at 35N is only 0.3 Sv. In this case the North Pacific as a whole acts as a heat source but it releases only .25 X 1021 g cal/yr of heat to the atmosphere. One of the results that emerges from these steady state calculations is that the circulation in the North Pacific appears to be locked into a pattern that is character- ized by winter winds. The circulations related to the annual mean winds and those of other seasons are all substantially weaker. Indeed, with spring and summer winds the Kuroshio does not separate from the coast at all and the circulation bears little resemblance to the observed. Although the present theory is based on the assump- tion of steady-state flows, the time response of the ocean at mid-latitudes is too long to allow quasi-steady adjustment. Hence, the conclusions listed above are only suggestive. Results for the Indian Ocean were obtained only for the case with annual mean winds and an upwelling of 1.5 X 10-s cm/ sec.