On the Wind Power Input to the Ocean General Circulation
Name
Zhai-2012-On the Wind Power In.pdf
Size
2.57 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2178835ac80b575658e901e365cb3b48
Author(s)
Zhai, Xiaoming
Johnson, Helen L.
Marshall, David P.
Wunsch, Carl Isaac
Date Issued
August 2012
Journal
Journal of Physical Oceanography
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Zhai, Xiaoming et al. “On the Wind Power Input to the Ocean General Circulation.” Journal of Physical Oceanography 42.8 (2012): 1357–1365. © 2013 American Meteorological Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The wind power input to the ocean general circulation is usually calculated from the time-averaged wind products. Here, this wind power input is reexamined using available observations, focusing on the role of the synoptically varying wind. Power input to the ocean general circulation is found to increase by over 70% when 6-hourly winds are used instead of monthly winds. Much of the increase occurs in the storm-track regions of the Southern Ocean, Gulf Stream, and Kuroshio Extension. This result holds irrespective of whether the ocean surface velocity is accounted for in the wind stress calculation. Depending on the fate of the high-frequency wind power input, the power input to the ocean general circulation relevant to deep-ocean mixing may be less than previously thought. This study emphasizes the difficulty of choosing appropriate forcing for ocean-only models.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/jpo-d-12-09.1
