Description: A primitive equation model to study the dynamics of the Agulhas system has been developed. The model domain covers the South Atlantic and the south Indian Ocean with a resolution of ⅓° in the Agulhas region while coarser outside. It is driven by a climatology of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is shown that the model simulates the Agulhas Current, its retroflection, and the ring shedding successfully. The model results show baroclinic anticyclonic eddies in the Mozambique Channel and east of Madagascar, which travel toward the northern Agulhas Current. After the eddies reach the current they are advected southward with the mean flow. Due to the limited numerical resolution only a few eddies reach the retroflection region without much modification. These eddies are responsible for drastic enhancement of the heat transfer from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic and lead to periodicities in the interoceanic heat transport of about 50 days superimposed on the seasonal variability. Combined satellite data from TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 show that the observed vortices in the Mozambique Channel are comparable to those seen in the model. In contrast to this the simulated eddies east of Madagascar seem not to be well reproduced. Analyses of the energy conversion terms between the mean flow and the eddies suggest that barotropic instability plays an important role in the generation of Mozambique Channel eddies. For the generation of Agulhas rings and other eddy structures in the model the barotropic instability mechanism seems to be minor, and baroclinic instability mechanisms are more likely.

Description: Exchanges of water south of Africa between the South Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean are an important component of the global thermohaline circulation. Evidence exists that the variability in these exchanges, on both meso- and longer time scales, may significantly influence weather and climate patterns in the southern African region and the significance of these regional ocean–atmosphere interactions is discussed. Observations of the inter-ocean exchange are limited and it is necessary to augment these with estimates derived from models. As a first step in this direction, this study uses an eddy-permitting model to investigate the heat and volume transport in the oceanic region south of Africa and its variability on meso, seasonal and inter-annual time scales. On the annual mean, about Full-size image (〈1 K) (standard deviation Full-size image (〈1 K)) of heat flows west into the South Atlantic across 20°E (longitude of Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa), with just over Full-size image (〈1 K) (standard deviation Full-size image (〈1 K)) flowing north into the South Atlantic across 35°S. The seasonal variations in this transport are about 10% at 35°S in the South Atlantic and around 20% through 20°E; the model value of Full-size image (〈1 K) for summer (standard deviation ranging from Full-size image (〈1 K) in January to Full-size image (〈1 K) in March) appears consistent with respective estimates of 0.51 and Full-size image (〈1 K) derived from two WOCE summer cruises southwest of Cape Town to 45°S in 1990 and 1993. Volume transports of the Agulhas Current section through 35°S in the SW Indian Ocean range from 58 to Full-size image (〈1 K) in summer/autumn to 64–Full-size image (〈1 K) in winter/spring. The model results suggest that the inter-ocean exchange south of Africa is highly variable on seasonal through to interannual scales. If this variability is also the case in the real ocean (and the limited observations suggest that this is so), then there are likely to be significant implications for climate.

Description: Processes that influence the volume and heat transport across the Greenland–Scotland Ridge system are investigated in a numerical model with ° horizontal resolution. The focus is on the sensitivity of cross-ridge transports and the reaction of the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean circulation to changes in wind stress and buoyancy forcing on seasonal to interannual timescales. A general relation between changes in wind stress or cross-ridge density contrasts and the overturning transport of Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian Seas source water is established from a series of idealized experiments. The relation is used subsequently to interpret changes in an experiment over the years 1992–97 with realistic forcing. On seasonal and interannual timescales there is a clear correlation between heat flux and wind stress curl variability. The realistic model suggests a steady decrease in the strength of the cyclonic subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic with a corresponding decrease in heat transport during the 1990s

Description: Surface heat and freshwater fluxes from the Comprehensive 0cean-Atmosphere Data Set are revised and used diagnostically to compute air-sea transformation rates on density, temperature, and salinity classes over the domain of the data. Maximum rates occur over the warmest water and over mode waters, which are the dominant result of air-sea interaction. Transformation in different is accordingly distinguished by temperature and salinity, just as water masses in different oceans are so distinguished. Over the entire domain, to about 30°S, approximately 80×106 m3 s−1 of warm cool water are transformed by air-sea fluxes, on annual average. Calculations for several seas in the North Atlantic, where deep water is thought to originate, we also presented.