Tracing the thermohaline Conveyor Belt circulation; from the Drake Passage to the Pacific Ocean

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Berglund ◽  
Kristofer Döös ◽  
Jonas Nycander
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Drake Passage ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Volume Transport ◽  
Equatorial Undercurrent ◽  
Internal Mixing ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Water Mass Transformation

<p>This study describes an important pathway of the thermohaline conveyor belt circulation and connects the geographical distribution of water masses with water mass transformation. <br>In the Southern Ocean, cold and fresh water up-wells to the surface and returns northward, entering the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean. This reflects an important part of the thermohaline conveyor belt circulation. As the water flows northward, it changes temperature and salinity, and thus density. These changes can be caused either by internal mixing or air-sea interactions. </p><p>In this study, Lagrangian trajectories are used to follow the pathway from Drake Passage to the warm Pacific Ocean. Trajectories are started in the Drake Passage, and are ended when they either reach 25$^\circ$C or return to the Drake Passage. The trajectories entering the Pacific Ocean follow the Antarctic circumpolar current and separate then into two pathways. The first enters the Pacific Ocean close to the South American coast and flows along the coast until it reaches 25$^\circ$C close to the equator. The second pathway, which corresponds to most of the total volume transport entering the Pacific, are subducted around 40$^\circ$S. The water then moves westward until it reaches Australia where it turns northward and ultimately joins the equatorial undercurrent. </p><p>Along these two pathways, the water changes temperature and salinity, going from cold and fresh to warm and saline. Preliminary results indicate that the water mass transformation for the first pathway are due to air-sea interactions, and internal mixing for the second. </p>

scholarly journals SUSPENSIONS TRANSPORT PREDICTIVE MODELING UNDER VARIOUS SCENARIOS OF FERROMANGANESE NODULES EXTRACTION FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN BOTTOM

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
A. A. Sukhinov ◽  
A. A. Sukhinov ◽  
S. B. Kirilchik
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Aqueous Medium ◽  
Granulometric Composition ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Propagation Model ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Eastern Pacific Ocean ◽  
Ferromanganese Nodules ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean

The article is devoted to the suspensions’ distribution mathematical modeling in the Eastern Pacific Ocean for various scenarios for the ferromanganese nodules extraction. The suspensions propagation model with complex granulometric composition that can interact in an aqueous medium takes into account the suspensions microturbulent diffusion caused by the turbulent aqueous medium movement and the suspensions convection caused by the advective movement of water mass in the ocean; gravitational suspensions deposition under the gravity influence; mutual transitions between different fractions that make up the suspension; interaction of particles with the bottom and with the free surface.

scholarly journals Impact of Data Assimilation on ECCO2 Equatorial Undercurrent and North Equatorial Countercurrent in the Pacific Ocean

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Halpern ◽  
Dimitris Menemenlis ◽  
Xiaochun Wang
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Velocity Measurements ◽  
Equatorial Undercurrent ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe impact of data assimilation on the transports of eastward-flowing Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) in the Pacific Ocean from 145°E to 95°W during 2004–05 and 2009–11 was assessed. Two Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2), solutions were analyzed: one with data assimilation and one without. Assimilated data included satellite observations of sea surface temperature and ocean surface topography, in which the sampling patterns were approximately uniform over the 5 years, and in situ measurements of subsurface salinity and temperature profiles, in which the sampling patterns varied considerably in space and time throughout the 5 years. Velocity measurements were not assimilated. The impact of data assimilation was considered significant when the difference between the transports computed with and without data assimilation was greater than 5.5 × 106 m3 s−1 (or 5.5 Sv; 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) for the EUC and greater than 5.0 Sv for the NECC. In addition, the difference of annual-mean transports computed from 3-day-averaged data was statistically significant at the 95% level. The impact of data assimilation ranged from no impact to very substantial impact when data assimilation increased the EUC transport and decreased the NECC transport. The study’s EUC results had some correspondence with other studies and no simple agreement or disagreement pattern emerged among all studies of the impact of data assimilation. No comparable study of the impact of data assimilation on the NECC has been made.

Kelvin Waves around Antarctica

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 2909-2920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Kusahara ◽  
Kay I. Ohshima
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Drake Passage ◽  
Kelvin Waves ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract The Southern Ocean allows circumpolar structure and the Antarctic coastline plays a role as a waveguide for oceanic Kelvin waves. Under the cyclic conditions, the horizontal wavenumbers and frequencies for circumpolarly propagating waves are quantized, with horizontal wavenumbers 1, 2, and 3, corresponding to periods of about 32, 16, and 11 h, respectively. At these frequencies, westward-propagating signals are detected in sea level variation observed at Antarctic coastal stations. The occurrence frequency of westward-propagating signals far exceeds the statistical significance, and the phase speed of the observed signal agrees well with the theoretical phase speed of external Kelvin waves. Therefore, this study concludes that the observed, westward-propagating sea level variability is a signal of the external Kelvin waves of wavenumbers 1, 2, and 3 around Antarctica. A series of numerical model experiments confirms that Kelvin waves around Antarctica are driven by surface air pressure and that these waves are excited not only by local forcing over the Southern Ocean, but also by remote forcing over the Pacific Ocean. Sea level variations generated over the Pacific Ocean can travel to the western side of the South American coast and cross over Drake Passage to the Antarctic continent, constituting a part of the Kelvin waves around Antarctica.

On the Pacific Ocean regime shift

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (19) ◽  
pp. 3721-3724
Author(s):  
Cathy Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Regime Shift ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean
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