Title: The Large-Scale Vorticity Balance of the Antarctic Continental Margin in a Fine-Resolution Global Simulation

Abstract

The depth-integrated vorticity budget of a global, eddy-permitting ocean/sea ice simulation over the Antarctic continental margin (ACM) is diagnosed to understand the physical mechanisms implicated in meridional transport. The leading-order balance is between the torques due to lateral friction, nonlinear effects, and bottom vortex stretching, although details vary regionally. Maps of the time-averaged depth-integrated vorticity budget terms and time series of the spatially averaged, depth-integrated vorticity budget terms reveal that the flow in the Amundsen, Bellingshausen, and Weddell Seas and, to a lesser extent, in the western portion of East Antarctica, is closer to an approximate topographic Sverdrup balance (TSB) compared to other segments of the ACM. Correlation and coherence analyses further support these findings, and also show that inclusion of the vorticity tendency term in the response (the planetary vorticity advection and the bottom vortex stretching term) increases the correlation with the forcing (the vertical net stress curl), and also increases the coherence between forcing and response at high frequencies across the ACM, except for the West Antarctic Peninsula. Finally, these findings suggest that the surface stress curl, imparted by the wind and the sea ice, has the potential to contribute to the meridional, approximately cross-slope, transport to amore » greater extent in the Amundsen, Bellingshausen, Weddell, and part of the East Antarctic continental margin than elsewhere in the ACM.« less

Authors:

Palóczy, André  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Palóczy, André"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-8231-8298"

McClean, Julie L.  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "McClean, Julie L."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8221-2714"

Gille, Sarah T.  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Gille, Sarah T."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-9144-4368"

Wang, He  ^[2]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Wang, He"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9405-1452"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Publication Date:

Tue Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2020

Research Org.:

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1656890

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0020073; SC0014440

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Physical Oceanography

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 50; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-3670

Publisher:

American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

58 GEOSCIENCES; Southern Ocean; numerical modeling; continental shelf dynamic; Antarctica; max fluxes/transport; ocean dynamics; Ekman pumping; general circulation models; ocean