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The role of the surface density field in subtropical gyre circulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

G. S. Janowitz
G. S. Janowitz
Affiliation:
Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8208, USA
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Abstract

The effects of the surface density field on wind-driven subtropical gyre circulation are examined within the content of a continuously stratified, potential vorticity conserving model. It is found that the ventilated fluid downwelled from the mixed layer is confined to a relatively thin layer in subtropical regions; the maximum depths of the ventilated region occur in the eastern and southern regions of the gyre. As a consequence of the relative thinness of the ventilated region in the wind-driven gyre, the transport associated with the surface density field is a small part of the total transport in subtropical regions. Thus the surface density field and the potential vorticity associated with ventilated fluid play a minor role in subtropical gyre dynamics and the potential vorticity of unventilated recirculating fluid is found to play the major role in subtropical gyre dynamics. A method of calculating the flow in the relatively large recirculating region is developed and the results of a specific example are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 209 , December 1989 , pp. 227 - 247
Copyright
© 1989 Cambridge University Press

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