Topographic Stress: Importance and Parameterization

  • Alberto Alvarez
  • Joaquin Tintoré
Chapter
Part of the NATO Science Series book series (ASIC, volume 516)

Abstract

The ocean circulation problem concerns the motion of a rotating stratified and turbulent fluid on a sphere (the Earth) with complex boundaries introduced by the break up of the continents. This nonlinear nature of ocean dynamics generates a wide variety of interesting physical phenomena mainly related to the existence of strong dynamical links among physical processes occurring at different space and time scales. These links range from space scales of centimeters and time scales that might be counted in minutes or hours, up to global motions with time scales of centuries, that control aspects of the Earth’s climate. This range of scale interactions shown by ocean dynamics induces the appearance of collective phenomena that are hardly explained by the individual properties of each ocean process. Understanding ocean dynamics requires not only the study of isolated individual ocean processes, but also the collective result emerging from the combination of these individual processes acting at different space and time scales. Therefore the study of ocean circulation becomes an extremely difficult task because it requires determining the whole set of space and time scales that characterize the behaviour of the ocean system.

Keywords

Ocean Model Ocean Circulation Large Scale Circulation Bottom Topography Ocean Dynamic 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. 1.
    Alvarez A., Tintoré J., Holloway G., Eby M., Beckers J. M. (1994) The effect of the topographic stress on the Western Mediterranean circulation, J. Geophys. Res. 99 16053–16064.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    Alvarez A., Hernandez E., Tintoré J. (1997) Noise-sustained currents on quasigeostrophic turbulence over topography, Physica A 247, 312–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    . Alvarez A., Hernandez E., Tintoré J. (1998) Noise rectification in quasigeostrophic forced turbulence, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters. Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    Arnone A., Wiesenberg D. A., Saunders K. D. (1991) The origin and characteristics of the Algerian Current, J. Geophys. Res. 95, 1587–1599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Beckers J. M. (1992), M.A. Thesis, Universite de Liege, Belgium, 360 pp.Google Scholar
  6. 6.
    Bethoux J. P. (1979) Budgets of the Mediterranean Sea. Their dependence on the local climate and on the characteristics of the Atlantic Waters, Oceanol. Acta 2, 157–163.Google Scholar
  7. 7.
    Bretherton F. P., Haidvogel D. B. (1976) Two-dimensional turbulence above topography, J. Fluid Mech. 78, 129–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. 8.
    Bryden H. L., Brady E. C., Pillsbury R. D. (1988) Flow through the Strait of Gibraltar, in J. L. Almazan, T. Kinder, H. Bryden and G. Parrilla (eds.),Seminario sobre la oceanografia fisica del estrecho de Gibraltar,Seceg, Madrid.Google Scholar
  9. 9.
    Cummins P. F. (1992) Inertial gyres in decaying and forced geostrophic turbulence, J. Mar. Res. 50, 545–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Danabasoglu G., McWilliams J C, Gent P. R. (1994) The role of mesoscale tracer transports in the global ocean circulation, Science, 264, 1123–1126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    Edwards S. F. (1964) The statistical dynamics of homogeneous turbulence, J. Fluid Mech. 18, 239–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. 12.
    Greiner A., Strittmatter W., Honerkamp J. (1988) Numerical integrations of stochastic differential equations, J. Stat. Phys. 51, 95–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. 13.
    Herring J. R. (1977) On the statistical theory of two-dimensional topographic turbulence, J. Atmos. Sci. 34, 1731–1750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    Holland R. W., McWilliams J. C. (1987) Computer modeling in physical oceanography from the global circulation to turbulence, Physics Today 40, 51–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.
    Holloway G. (1978) A spectral theory of nonlinear barotropic motion above irregular topography, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 8, 414–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. 16.
    Holloway G. (1986) Eddies, waves, circulation and mixing: statistical geofluid mechanics, Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 18, 91–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    Holloway G. (1992) Representing topographic stress for large-scale ocean models, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 22, 1033–1046.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. 18.
    Holloway G., Sou T., Eby M. (1995) Dynamics of the circulation of the Japan Sea, J. Mar. Res. 53, 539–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. 19.
    Katz A. (1967) Principles of statistical mechanics, W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco; Grandy W. T. (1987) Foundations of statistical mechanics, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
  20. 20.
    Kraichnan R. H., Montgomery D., Rep. Prog. Phys., 43, 547 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. 21.
    Leith C. E. (1971) Atmospheric predictability and two-dimensional turbulence, J. Atmos. Sci. 28, 145–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. 22.
    Levitus S. (1982) Climatological atlas of the world ocean, NOAA Prof. Paper, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 173 pp.Google Scholar
  23. 23.
    May P. W. (1992) Climatological flux in Western Mediterranean Sea, part 1: wind and wind stresses, NORDA Rep. 54, 56 pp.Google Scholar
  24. 24.
    Miller J., Weichman P. B., Cross M. C. (1992) Statistical mechanics, Euler’s equation and Jupiter’s Red Spot, Phys. Rev. A 45, 2328–2359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. 25.
    Millot C. (1987) Circulation in the Western Mediterranean Sea, Oceanol. Acta 10, 143–149.Google Scholar
  26. 26.
    Millot C. (1991) Mesoscale and seasonal variabilities of the circulation in the Western Mediterranean, Dyn. Atmos. Oceans 15, 179–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. 27.
    Neelin D. J., Marotzke J. (1994) Representing ocean eddies in climate models, Science 264, 1099–1100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. 28.
    Pedlosky J. (1987) Geophysical fluid dynamics, Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. 29.
    Salmon R., Holloway G., Hendershot M. C. (1976) The equilibrium statistical mechanics of simple quasi-geostrophic models, J. Fluid Mech. 75, 691–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. 30.
    . Sancho J. M., San Miguel M., Katz S., Gunton J. (1982) Analytical and numerical studies of multiplicative noise. Phys. Rev. A 26 1589–1609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. 31.
    Sou T., Holloway G., Eby M. (1996) Topographic stress and Caribean Sea circulation, J. Geophys. Res. 101,16449–16453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. 32.
    . Tintoré J., Gomis D., Alonso S., Parrilla G. (1991) Mesoscale dynamics and vertical motion in the Alboran Sea, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 21,811–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. 33.
    . Toral R., Chakrabarti A. (1988) Generation of gaussian distributed random numbers by using a numerical inversion method, Computer Phys. Comm. 74,327–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. 34.
    . Treguier A. M. (1989) Topographically generated steady currents in barotropic turbulence, Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dynamics 47, 43–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. 35.
    . Yakhot V., Orszag S. A. (1986) Renormalization group analysis of turbulence I. Basic theory, J. Sci. Comp. 1, 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. 36.
    . Williams G. P. (1978) Planetary circulations: 1. Barotropic representation of Jovian and terrestrial turbulence, J. Atmos. Sci. 35 1399–1426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1998

Authors and Affiliations

  • Alberto Alvarez
    • 1
  • Joaquin Tintoré
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Physics and Center for Complex SystemsNational Central UniversityChung-liTaiwan, ROC
  2. 2.Departament de FísicaUniversitat de les Illes Balears and Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios AvanzadosPalma de MallorcaSpain

Personalised recommendations