Eddy saturation and frictional control of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

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Marshall, D. P., Ambaum, M. H. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6824-8083, Maddison, J. R., Munday, D. R. and Novakova, L. (2017) Eddy saturation and frictional control of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (1). pp. 286-292. ISSN 0094-8276 doi: 10.1002/2016GL071702

Abstract/Summary

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest current in the ocean and has a pivotal impact on ocean stratification, heat content, and carbon content. The circumpolar volume transport is relatively insensitive to surface wind forcing in models that resolve turbulent ocean eddies, a process termed “eddy saturation.” Here a simple model is presented that explains the physics of eddy saturation with three ingredients: a momentum budget, a relation between the eddy form stress and eddy energy, and an eddy energy budget. The model explains both the insensitivity of circumpolar volume transport to surface wind stress and the increase of eddy energy with wind stress. The model further predicts that circumpolar transport increases with increased bottom friction, a counterintuitive result that is confirmed in eddy-permitting calculations. These results suggest an unexpected and important impact of eddy energy dissipation, through bottom drag or lee wave generation, on ocean stratification, ocean heat content, and potentially atmospheric CO2.

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Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/68869
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/2016GL071702
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	Analytical modeling and laboratory experiments, Eddies and mesoscale processes, Currents, General circulation, Topographic/bathymetric interactions, ocean eddies, eddy saturation, bottom drag, Antarctic Circumpolar Current, ocean stratification, heat content
Publisher	Wiley
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Funders:	Natural Environment Research Council	The sponsoring bodies who contributed funding for the creation of this item. Example: NERC Example: The Royal Society of Chemistry A pick list of funders may appear as you type in the funder's name in full or as an acronym. Select a correct match to complete the field or type in a new entry in full. For new entries, the full name is preferred.
Projects:	New models for storm track variability Funded by: Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M014932/1 - £217,153) Project Lead: Martinus Henricus Ambaum 1 January 2016 - 31 December 2017	Click Add to select your project (received at Reading) from an autocomplete list.

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Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2017 10:56	Date item deposited into CentAUR
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2024 02:27	Date item last modified

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