www.ocean-sci.net/2/137/2006/ doi:10.5194/os-2-137-2006 © Author(s) 2006. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Tropical extra-tropical thermocline water mass exchanges in the Community Climate Model v.3 Part I: the Atlantic Ocean 1Department of Physical Oceanography, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 2Laboratoire d'Océanographie Dynamique et de Climatologie (LODYC), Paris, France 3National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration-Cooperative Institute Research Environmental Sciences (NOAA-CIRES) Climate Diagnostics Center, USA Abstract. The climatological annual mean tropical-extra-tropical pathways of thermocline waters in the Atlantic Ocean are investigated with the NCAR CCSM numerical coupled model. Results from three numerical experiments are analyzed: Two are fully coupled runs with different spatial resolution (T42 and T85) for the atmospheric component. The third numerical experiment is an ocean-only run forced by NCEP winds and fluxes. Results show that the different atmospheric resolutions have a significant impact on the subduction pathways in the Atlantic because of how the wind field is represented. These simulation results also show that the water subducted at the subtropics reaching the EUC is entirely from the South Atlantic. The coupled model ability to simulate the STCs is discussed. Final Revised Paper (PDF, 3567 KB) Discussion Paper (OSD) Citation: Wainer, I., Lazar, A., and Solomon, A.: Tropical extra-tropical thermocline water mass exchanges in the Community Climate Model v.3 Part I: the Atlantic Ocean, Ocean Sci., 2, 137-146, doi:10.5194/os-2-137-2006, 2006. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML |
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