Warm Bias and Parameterization of Boundary Upwelling in Ocean Models
It has been demonstrated that Eastern Boundary Currents (EBC) are a baroclinic intensification of the interior circulation of the ocean due to the emergence of mesoscale eddies in response to the sharp buoyancy gradients driven by the wind-stress and the thermal surface forcing. The eddies accomplish the heat and salt transport necessary to insure that the subsurface flow is adiabatic, compensating for the heat and salt transport effected by the mean currents. The EBC thus generated occurs on a cross-shore scale of order 20-100 km, and thus this scale needs to be resolved in climate models in order to capture the meridional transport by the EBC. Our result indicate that changes in the near shore currents on the oceanic eastern boundaries are linked not just to local forcing, such as coastal changes in the winds, but depend on the basin-wide circulation as well.
- Research Organization:
- The Regents of the University of California, Univ. of CA San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001962
- OSTI ID:
- 1054196
- Report Number(s):
- Final Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Dynamical Links between the Decadal Variability of the Oyashio and Kuroshio Extensions
Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography