Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is...
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Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2021
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 |
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author | Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R |
author2 | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
author_facet | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R |
author_sort | Youngs, Madeleine K |
collection | MIT |
description | ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is opposed by precipitation. A two-layer analytical model illustrates that the overturning circulation acts to mitigate the effect of precipitation by advecting salty, dense water from subtropical latitudes to polar latitudes. The nonlinear dependence of the overturning strength on basin width makes it more efficient in a narrow basin, resulting in a convection shutdown at a stronger freshwater forcing. These predictions are confirmed by simulations with a general circulation model configured with a single closed basin to the north and a reentrant channel to the south. This suggests that basin width may play a role in suppressing convection in the North Pacific but not in the North Atlantic. |
first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:19:24Z |
format | Article |
id | mit-1721.1/133794 |
institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:19:24Z |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | mit-1721.1/1337942024-01-05T21:42:09Z Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Convection penetrates to the ocean bottom in the North Atlantic but not in the North Pacific. This study examines the role of basin width in shutting down high-latitude ocean convection. Deep convection is triggered by polar cooling, but it is opposed by precipitation. A two-layer analytical model illustrates that the overturning circulation acts to mitigate the effect of precipitation by advecting salty, dense water from subtropical latitudes to polar latitudes. The nonlinear dependence of the overturning strength on basin width makes it more efficient in a narrow basin, resulting in a convection shutdown at a stronger freshwater forcing. These predictions are confirmed by simulations with a general circulation model configured with a single closed basin to the north and a reentrant channel to the south. This suggests that basin width may play a role in suppressing convection in the North Pacific but not in the North Atlantic. 2021-10-27T19:56:42Z 2021-10-27T19:56:42Z 2020 2021-09-16T14:18:19Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 en 10.1029/2020GL089135 Geophysical Research Letters Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) MIT web domain |
spellingShingle | Youngs, Madeleine K Ferrari, Raffaele Flierl, Glenn R Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title | Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_full | Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_fullStr | Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_full_unstemmed | Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_short | Basin‐Width Dependence of Northern Deep Convection |
title_sort | basin width dependence of northern deep convection |
url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133794 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT youngsmadeleinek basinwidthdependenceofnortherndeepconvection AT ferrariraffaele basinwidthdependenceofnortherndeepconvection AT flierlglennr basinwidthdependenceofnortherndeepconvection |