Meridional Flow Of Grounded Abyssal Currents
On A Sloping Bottom In Spherical Geometry
Author(s)
G. E. Swaters
Abstract
A steady nonlinear planetary-geostrophic model in spherical coordinates is
presented describing the hemispheric-scale meridional flow of grounded abyssal
currents on a sloping bottom. The model, which corresponds mathematically to a
quasi-linear hyperbolic partial differential equation, can be solved explicitly for a
cross-slope isopycnal field that is grounded (i.e., intersects the bottom on the up
slope and down slope sides). The abyssal currents possess decreasing thickness in
the equatorward direction while maintaining constant meridional volume transport
and exhibit westward intensification as they flow toward the equator.
1 Introduction
Many of the abyssal currents in the oceans associated with the equatorward
motion of deep water masses produced in high latitudes due to atmospheric
cooling, are organized as mesoscale topographically-steered geostrophicallybalanced
grounded gravity currents that flow along sloping continental boundaries.
These currents form an important component in the deep \“leg” of the meridional
overturning circulation in the oceans. The mesoscale dynamics of these currents
has been described in a series of papers [1–11]. All of these studies have implicitly
assumed either an f or β-plane approximation in which the dynamics is modelled
in a Cartesian coordinate system with the implicit assumption that the horizontal
length scales are not too much larger than the internal deformation radius (on the
order of about 10–100 km in the ocean).
Keywords
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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