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http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2106
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| Title: | Passive tracers and active dynamics - a model study of hydrography and circulation in the northern North Atlantic |
| Authors: | Mauritzen, C.
Hjøllo, S.S.
Sandø, Anne Britt |
| Issue Date: | 9-Aug-2006 |
| Publisher: | AGU |
| Series/Report no.: | Journal of Geophysical Research, 111(C8) |
| Abstract: | A long-standing problem in oceanography has been to understand the relationship between
what can be measured in the ocean, such as hydrography, and what cannot, such as the
strength and structure of the complete Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) of the
world oceans, commonly considered the main oceanic long-term modifier of Earth’s climate.
With the aid of a 50 year simulation from a numerical ice-ocean model we have investigated
this relationship in the area of the northernmost extension of the MOC, in the Subpolar and
Nordic Seas, on interannual timescales. We find that variability in the northward flux of salt
and temperature in this region is controlled almost entirely by the volume flux, confirming
that a knowledge of the variability of the circulation strength proper is necessary. The
simulated hydrographic anomalies are within the range observed in the 20th century, thus
fundamental changes to the circulation were not expected nor found. It is seen that variability
in either temperature or salinity does contain some information about the variability in current
strength, because hydrography and circulation generally respond to the same atmospheric
forcing in the North Atlantic sector. Whether it is temperature or salinity that contains the
information is related to the parameter range of the equation of state at the location in
question: if density depends primarily on temperature then a salinity anomaly will tend to
survive and vice versa. The oceanic response involves hydrographic changes and propagation
of these, gyre strength changes, and changes in the MOC. |
| URI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005JC003252
http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2106 |
| ISSN: | 0148-0227 |
| Appears in Collections: | Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC)
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