The Role of Eddies in the Zonal and Meridional Overturning Circulations of Buoyancy-Forced Basins
Name
phoc-jpo-d-20-0025.1.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.99 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2091e4ad9b3312beaf566d498c448bc1
Author(s)
Bire, Suyash
Wolfe, Christopher LP
Date Issued
February 3, 2021
Journal
Journal of Physical Oceanography
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Bire, S., and C. L. Wolfe, 2021: The Role of Eddies in the Zonal and Meridional Overturning Circulations of Buoyancy-Forced Basins. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 51, 575–590.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The zonal and meridional overturning circulations of buoyancy-forced basins are studied in an eddy-resolving model. The zonal overturning circulation (ZOC) is driven by the meridional gradient of buoyancy at the surface and stratification at the southern boundary. The ZOC, in turn, produces zonal buoyancy gradients through upwelling and downwelling at the western and eastern boundaries, respectively. The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is driven by these zonal gradients rather than being directly driven by meridional gradients. Eddies lead to a broadening of the upwelling and downwelling limbs of the ZOC, as well as a decoupling of the locations of vertical and diapycnal transport. This broadening is more prominent on the eastern boundary, where westward-moving eddies transport warm water away from a poleward-flowing eastern boundary current. Most of the diapycnal downwelling occurs in the “swash zone”—the region where the isopycnals intermittently come in contact with the surface and lose buoyancy to the atmosphere. A scaling for the overturning circulations, which depends on the background stratification and the surface buoyancy gradient, is derived and found to be an excellent fit to the numerical experiments.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0025.1
