Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects
The oceanic response to surface loading, such as that related to atmospheric pressure, freshwater exchange, and changes in the gravity field, is essential to our understanding of sea level variability. In particular, so-called self-attraction and loading (SAL) effects caused by the redistribution of...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Meteorological Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98389 |
| _version_ | 1826198932150026240 |
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| author | Vinogradova, Nadya T. Ponte, Rui M. Quinn, Katherine J. Tamisiea, Mark E. Campin, Jean-Michel Davis, James L. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Vinogradova, Nadya T. Ponte, Rui M. Quinn, Katherine J. Tamisiea, Mark E. Campin, Jean-Michel Davis, James L. |
| author_sort | Vinogradova, Nadya T. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The oceanic response to surface loading, such as that related to atmospheric pressure, freshwater exchange, and changes in the gravity field, is essential to our understanding of sea level variability. In particular, so-called self-attraction and loading (SAL) effects caused by the redistribution of mass within the land–atmosphere–ocean system can have a measurable impact on sea level. In this study, the nature of SAL-induced variability in sea level is examined in terms of its equilibrium (static) and nonequilibrium (dynamic) components, using a general circulation model that implicitly includes the physics of SAL. The additional SAL forcing is derived by decomposing ocean mass anomalies into spherical harmonics and then applying Love numbers to infer associated crustal displacements and gravitational shifts. This implementation of SAL physics incurs only a relatively small computational cost. Effects of SAL on sea level amount to about 10% of the applied surface loading on average but depend strongly on location. The dynamic component exhibits large-scale basinwide patterns, with considerable contributions from subweekly time scales. Departures from equilibrium decrease toward longer time scales but are not totally negligible in many places. Ocean modeling studies should benefit from using a dynamical implementation of SAL as used here. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:12:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/98389 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:12:11Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/983892022-09-27T17:47:25Z Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects Vinogradova, Nadya T. Ponte, Rui M. Quinn, Katherine J. Tamisiea, Mark E. Campin, Jean-Michel Davis, James L. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Campin, Jean-Michel The oceanic response to surface loading, such as that related to atmospheric pressure, freshwater exchange, and changes in the gravity field, is essential to our understanding of sea level variability. In particular, so-called self-attraction and loading (SAL) effects caused by the redistribution of mass within the land–atmosphere–ocean system can have a measurable impact on sea level. In this study, the nature of SAL-induced variability in sea level is examined in terms of its equilibrium (static) and nonequilibrium (dynamic) components, using a general circulation model that implicitly includes the physics of SAL. The additional SAL forcing is derived by decomposing ocean mass anomalies into spherical harmonics and then applying Love numbers to infer associated crustal displacements and gravitational shifts. This implementation of SAL physics incurs only a relatively small computational cost. Effects of SAL on sea level amount to about 10% of the applied surface loading on average but depend strongly on location. The dynamic component exhibits large-scale basinwide patterns, with considerable contributions from subweekly time scales. Departures from equilibrium decrease toward longer time scales but are not totally negligible in many places. Ocean modeling studies should benefit from using a dynamical implementation of SAL as used here. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Interdisciplinary Science Program Grant NNX11AC14G) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0961507) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Sea Level Change Team Project Grant NNX14AP33G) 2015-09-08T15:35:55Z 2015-09-08T15:35:55Z 2015-03 2014-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0022-3670 1520-0485 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98389 Vinogradova, Nadya T., Rui M. Ponte, Katherine J. Quinn, Mark E. Tamisiea, Jean-Michel Campin, and James L. Davis. “Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects.” Journal of Physical Oceanography 45, no. 3 (March 2015): 678–689. © 2015 American Meteorological Society en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jpo-d-14-0150.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society |
| spellingShingle | Vinogradova, Nadya T. Ponte, Rui M. Quinn, Katherine J. Tamisiea, Mark E. Campin, Jean-Michel Davis, James L. Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title | Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title_full | Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title_fullStr | Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title_short | Dynamic Adjustment of the Ocean Circulation to Self-Attraction and Loading Effects |
| title_sort | dynamic adjustment of the ocean circulation to self attraction and loading effects |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98389 |
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