Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Volume 39, Issue 12, Pages 3162-3175Publisher
AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1175/2009JPO4239.1
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Funding
- NSF [OCE 0346178, 0749722, 0842834, OCE 0344094, OCE 0725796, OCE-0451086]
- Newton Trust of the University of Cambridge
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Division Of Ocean Sciences [0749722, 0842834] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [0845150] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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This study analyzes anisotropic properties of the material transport by eddies and eddy-driven zonal jets in a general circulation model of the North Atlantic through the analysis of Lagrangian particle trajectories. Spreading rates-defined here as half the rate of change in the particle dispersion-in the zonal direction systematically exceed the meridional rates by an order of magnitude. Area-averaged values for the upper-ocean zonal and meridional spreading rates are approximately 8100 and 1400 m(2) s(-1), respectively, and in the deep ocean they are 2400 and 200 m(2) s(-1). The results demonstrate that this anisotropy is mainly due to the action of the transient eddies and not to the shear dispersion associated with the time-mean jets. This property is consistent with the fact that eddies in this study have zonally elongated shapes. With the exception of the upper-ocean subpolar gyre, eddies also cause the superdiffusive zonal spreading, significant variations in the spreading rate in the vertical and meridional directions, and the difference between the westward and eastward spreading.
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