TY - JOUR
T1 - Modeling Ocean Circulation
AU - Bryan, Kirk
AU - Sarmiento, Jorge Louis
PY - 1985/1/1
Y1 - 1985/1/1
N2 - This chapter describes various aspects of the modeling of ocean circulation. Modeling the ocean circulation is entering a new era due to two major technical developments. One of these developments is the satellite-borne altimeter, which can provide a nearly synoptic view of the sea-surface elevation of the World Ocean. The three-dimensional models that are similar to current atmospheric circulation models are general enough to treat a wide variety of time scales. The use of single buoyancy variable is sufficient to discuss many aspects of ocean dynamics, keeping in mind that a separate treatment of temperature and salinity is necessary for an accurate simulation of the role of the ocean in climate. It is found that as the equatorward interior flow is much less intense than the flow at the western boundary current, its temperature roughly corresponds to the specified reference temperature at each latitudes rather than the western boundary current flow. It is observed that the effective global diffusion obtained by fitting the three-dimensional model results to the box-diffusion model is over five times that of the background vertical diffusion of the numerical model.
AB - This chapter describes various aspects of the modeling of ocean circulation. Modeling the ocean circulation is entering a new era due to two major technical developments. One of these developments is the satellite-borne altimeter, which can provide a nearly synoptic view of the sea-surface elevation of the World Ocean. The three-dimensional models that are similar to current atmospheric circulation models are general enough to treat a wide variety of time scales. The use of single buoyancy variable is sufficient to discuss many aspects of ocean dynamics, keeping in mind that a separate treatment of temperature and salinity is necessary for an accurate simulation of the role of the ocean in climate. It is found that as the equatorward interior flow is much less intense than the flow at the western boundary current, its temperature roughly corresponds to the specified reference temperature at each latitudes rather than the western boundary current flow. It is observed that the effective global diffusion obtained by fitting the three-dimensional model results to the box-diffusion model is over five times that of the background vertical diffusion of the numerical model.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0065-2687(08)60232-0
DO - 10.1016/S0065-2687(08)60232-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0022221262
SN - 0065-2687
VL - 28
SP - 433
EP - 459
JO - Advances in Geophysics
JF - Advances in Geophysics
IS - PA
ER -