OCEAN TRANSPORT MODEL FOR THE NORTH ALTANTIC.

Three-dimensional solutions are obtained for the circulation of the North Atlantic using a robust diagnostic model. In contrast to previous diagnostic models the robust diagnostic model incorporates the conservation of the large-scale fields of heat and salinity as well as momentum. An approximate fit to observed fields of temperature and salinity is obtained by a closure condition. The method is robust in the sense that it does not have the extreme sensitivity to the density input fields of the classical diagnostic method. Equilibrium solutions are obtained by numerical integration of the time-dependent equations. Error estimates for the velocity field can be obtained indirectly from the numerical solutions. Temperature observations used as input have an effective resolution of 3 degree multiplied by 3 degree of latitude and longitude and a sampling error of plus or minus 0. 15 degree C.