Low-frequency variations of the large-scale ocean circulation and heat transport in the North Atlantic from 1955-1998 in situ temperature and salinity data

Type Article
Date 2008-12
Language English
Author(s) Huck Thierry1, Colin De Verdiere Alain1, Estrade P.1, Schopp Richard1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Bretagne Occidentale, IFREMER, CNRS, IRD,Lab Phys Oceans,UMR 6523, F-29238 Brest 3, France.
Source Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union), 2008-12 , Vol. 35 , N. 23 , P. 1-5
DOI 10.1029/2008GL035635
WOS© Times Cited 16
Note campagne OVIDE
Abstract Low-frequency variations of the large-scale ocean circulation in the Atlantic are reconstructed from NODC pentadal anomalies of temperature and salinity from 1955 to 1998 based on hydrographic data, in addition to atmospheric reanalysis surface forcing. Diagnostic ocean circulations are estimated from simple methods using dynamical model integrations: namely diagnostic, robust diagnostic, and short prognostic. Mean transports of heat and mass are sensitive to the method and model configuration, but their decadal variability is much more coherent and does not depend explicitly on the variations of the surface forcing, its influence being imprinted in the thermohaline structure. Multidecadal variations are of the order of 20%, with large transports in the subpolar gyre in the early 1960's and mid 1990's, and low values in the mid 1970's. By reducing the influence of subgrid-scale parameterizations and surface forcings, these methods offer alternatives to exhaustive GCM simulations.
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Huck Thierry, Colin De Verdiere Alain, Estrade P., Schopp Richard (2008). Low-frequency variations of the large-scale ocean circulation and heat transport in the North Atlantic from 1955-1998 in situ temperature and salinity data. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(23), 1-5. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035635 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6116/