EARTH SYSTEM PHYSICS SEMINAR

[pandora]

EARTH SYSTEM PHYSICS SEMINAR
EXTERNAL SEMINAR SERIES

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Oppenheimer Room,  LB Second Floor,  11:30 hrs

Alexey FEDOROV
Yale University
Department of Geology and Geophysics
New Haven, Connecticut   USA

STABILITY OF THE ATLANTIC MERIDIONAL OVERTURNING CIRCULATION
IN A ZONALLY-AVERAGED OCEAN MODEL

We study the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation (AMOC) in an idealized zonally averaged ocean model. The
basin of the model extends from northern high latitudes to Antarctica
and includes a representation of a periodic circumpolar channel. The
model employs diapycnal and isopycnal diffusivities, and the
Gent-McWilliams parameterization to represent eddy fluxes. Under the
standard surface forcing taken from the observations, the model
reproduces realistic ocean thermal structure, meridional overturning
and the ACC. The stability of the AMOC is then extensively studied
using three controls parameters: the strength of the westerly wind
stress over the Southern Ocean, the magnitude of surface freshwater
fluxes imposed in the Northern Atlantic, and the strength of
diapycnal diffusion.


Everyone is most welcome.