4.7 Article

Stochastic variability of oceanic flows above topography anomalies

Journal

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 38, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2011GL048401

Keywords

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Funding

  1. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) through the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OST/ST)
  2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
  3. Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU)
  4. Groupe Mission Mercator Coriolis (GMMC)
  5. European Commission [FP7-SPACE-2007-1-CT-218812-MYOCEAN]
  6. DoE [DE-SC0005189]
  7. NOAA [NA08OAR4320752]
  8. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0005189] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

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We describe a stochastic variability mechanism which is genuinely internal to the ocean, i.e., not due to fluctuations in atmospheric forcing. The key ingredient is the existence of closed contours of bottom topography surrounded by a stirring region of enhanced eddy activity. This configuration leads to the formation of a robust but highly variable vortex above the topography anomaly. The vortex dynamics integrates the white noise forcing of oceanic eddies into a red noise signal for the large scale volume transport of the vortex. The strong interannual fluctuations of the transport of the Zapiola anticyclone (similar to 100 Sv) in the Argentine basin are argued to be partly due to such eddy-driven stochastic variability, on the basis of a 310 years long simulation of a comprehensive global ocean model run driven by a repeated-year forcing. Citation: Venaille, A., J. Le Sommer, J.-M. Molines, and B. Barnier (2011), Stochastic variability of oceanic flows above topography anomalies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L16611, doi:10.1029/2011GL048401.

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