scholarly journals Response of the antarctic circumpolar current transport to global warming in a coupled model

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (24) ◽  
pp. 26-1-26-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daohua Bi ◽  
William F. Budd ◽  
Anthony C. Hirst ◽  
Xingren Wu
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Antarctic Circumpolar Current ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Current Transport ◽  
Circumpolar Current ◽  
The Antarctic

scholarly journals Thermohaline and Wind Forcing of a Circumpolar Channel withBlocked Geostrophic Contours

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 2520-2540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Borowski ◽  
Rüdiger Gerdes ◽  
Dirk Olbers
Keyword(s):  
Potential Energy ◽  
Antarctic Circumpolar Current ◽  
Drake Passage ◽  
Wind Forcing ◽  
Wind Effect ◽  
Current Transport ◽  
Leading Order ◽  
Meridional Gradient ◽  
Circumpolar Current ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is governed by unique dynamics. Because the latitude belt of Drake Passage is not zonally bounded by continents, the Sverdrup theory does not apply to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. However, most of the geostrophic contours are blocked at Drake Passage, which provides an important dynamic constraint for the vorticity equation of the depth averaged flow. This study addresses the effects of thermohaline and wind forcing on the large-scale transport of a circumpolar current with blocked geostrophic contours. Various numerical experiments with three different idealized model geometries were conducted. Based on the results and theoretical arguments, the authors promote an indirect wind effect on the circumpolar current: while the direct effects of the wind in driving the circumpolar current through a vertical transfer of the applied wind stress are of minor importance, the wind does substantially influence the circumpolar current transport through its effects on the density field. This indirect wind effect is discussed in two steps. First, at the latitudes of the circumpolar current and longitudes where the geostrophic contours are blocked, the meridional gradient of the mass transport streamfunction is to leading order balanced by the meridional gradient of the baroclinic potential energy. This balance implies that the total transport is to leading order baroclinic and that the deep transport is small. For this statement, some theoretical arguments are offered. Second, a simplified analytical model is used to obtain the distribution of the baroclinic potential energy. Assuming an advective–diffusive balance for the densities in the deep downwelling northern branch of the Deacon cell, this model reproduces the qualitative dependence of the circumpolar current transport on the imposed wind and thermohaline forcing as well as on the turbulent diffusivities.

scholarly journals Nonlinear Differential Equations Modeling the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jifeng Chu ◽  
Kateryna Marynets
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Point ◽  
Differential Equations ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Topological Degree ◽  
Antarctic Circumpolar Current ◽  
Fixed Point Theorems ◽  
Nonlinear Differential Equations ◽  
Existence Results ◽  
Circumpolar Current ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to study one class of nonlinear differential equations, which model the Antarctic circumpolar current. We prove the existence results for such equations related to the geophysical relevant boundary conditions. First, based on the weighted eigenvalues and the theory of topological degree, we study the semilinear case. Secondly, the existence results for the sublinear and superlinear cases are proved by fixed point theorems.

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