HR: 15:00h
AN: OS52K-05    [PDF]
TI: Numerical and Observational Study of the Circulation That Connects the Subtropical and Tropical Atlantic
AU: * Rodrigues, R R
EM: rrodrigues@gso.uri.edu
AF: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 South Ferry Road, Box 200, Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AU: Rothstein, L
EM: lrothstein@gso.uri.edu
AF: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 South Ferry Road, Box 200, Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AU: Wimbush, M
EM: mwimbush@gso.uri.edu
AF: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 South Ferry Road, Box 200, Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AB: The role of the wind-driven subtropical circulation in determining the tropical thermocline has been extensively studied in the last decade, with many publications on the pathways between subtropical and tropical oceans (the subtropical cells). Previous studies have shown that most of the water encountered in the equatorial Atlantic thermocline comes from the South Atlantic. Moreover, the southeastern corner of the subtropical gyre, where the equatorial water originates, is strongly influenced by water from the Indian Ocean (warm route) with distinct temperature and salinity characteristics. In this study, a reduced-gravity, primitive-equation OGCM (Gent and Cane, 1989) is used to investigate subsurface pathways from the South Atlantic to the Tropical Atlantic. Also, data from subsurface isobaric floats deployed in the South Atlantic are combined with Gravest Empirical Mode (GEM) fields, calculated from historical hydrography, to obtain maps of absolute transport for the region in discussion. Comparisons of the model and float-GEM results will give a better understanding of the wind-driven circulation of the South Atlantic and its effects on the equatorial thermocline.
DE: 4532 General circulation
DE: 4572 Upper ocean processes
DE: 4576 Western boundary currents
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting