Publication Date:
2023-11-14
Description:
Agulhas leakage, the warm and salty inflow of Indian Ocean water into the Atlantic Ocean, is of importance for the climate-relevant Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. South of Africa, the eastward turning Agulhas Current sheds Agulhas rings, cyclones and filaments of order 100 km that carry the Indian Ocean water into the Cape Basin and further into the Atlantic. Here, we show that the resolution of submesoscale flows of order 10 km in an ocean model leads to 40 % more Agulhas leakage and more realistic Cape Basin water-masses compared to a parallel non-submesoscale resolving simulation. Moreover, we show that submesoscale flows strengthen shear-edge eddies and in consequence lee cyclones at the northern edge of the Agulhas Current, as well as the leakage pathway in the region of the filaments that takes place outside of mesoscale eddies. This indicates that the increase in leakage can be attributed to stronger Agulhas filaments, when submesoscale flows are resolved.
Description:
Leakage of warm, salty waters from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic increases by up to 40 % in high-resolution numerical ocean model simulations, suggesting that low-resolution models underestimate this key part of the global meridional overturning circulation.
Description:
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency)
https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001665
Description:
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12085/c572cde8-a82c-4c2d-9bd7-288dfc8f1939
Description:
https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/gdp/data.php
Description:
https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=GLOBAL_REANALYSIS_PHY_001_030
Description:
https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_008_047
Keywords:
ddc:551.46
;
Climate and Earth system modelling
;
Physical oceanography
Language:
English
Type:
doc-type:article
Permalink
