Time-scales of passive tracers in the ocean with paleoapplications
Name
671401457-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
13.5 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2213755fa3ea6f85bb8ca73689f4135b
Author(s)
Siberlin, Charlotte A.
Advisor(s)
Carl Wunsch.
Date Issued
2010
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Quantifying time-responses of the ocean to passive and active tracers is critical when interpreting paleodata from sediment cores. Surface-injected tracers are not spreading instantaneously or uniformly throughout the ocean. To obtain insights into these time-scales, a transition matrix is used to compute successive states of a passive tracer concentration in the global ocean. Times to equilibrium are longer than 1500 years for any one region in the global ocean and, near the equilibrium, concentration gradients give time-lags from hundreds to thousands of years between the Atlantic and Pacific bottom, depending on the injection region and the nature of the boundary condition. Ice volume (glacio-eustatic) corrections to deep-sea and surface values cannot be assumed instantaneous, challenging previous paleodata interpretations from sediment cores. Preliminary results on time-responses of the ocean to active tracers, using a global circulation model limited to the North Atlantic box, show no major differences between a freshwater and a dye input, at least during the first 50 years of the experiment and for a small amount of freshwater.
Description
Thesis (S.M. in Climate Physics and Chemistry)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-134).
Subjects
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
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