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Quasi-stationary striations in basin-scale oceanic circulation: vorticity balance from observations and eddy-resolving model

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Abstract

Recently, prominent jet-like features of the ocean circulation, called striations, with a meridional scale of O(300–500 ;km) and extending for thousands of kilometers in length, have been detected in satellite and in situ observations and in high-resolution numerical models. In this paper, we study quasi-stationary striations, which are best seen in the multi-year time-averaged velocity fields. Using 1993–2002 mean dynamic ocean topography, satellite altimeter observations, and output of the Ocean General Circulation Model for the Earth Simulator, the dynamics of the quasi-stationary striations in the eastern parts of the subtropical North and South Pacific are examined by assessing individual terms in the time-averaged equations of relative and potential vorticity. While non-linear effects are found to be essential in the dynamics of the striations, rejecting some linear hypotheses forwarded in the earlier studies, the relevance of the Rhines mechanism is not confirmed. Eddy flux does not act as a relative vorticity source for the striations. Using the potential vorticity (PV) diagnostics, we show that the time-mean PV is not conserved along the time-mean streamlines, and on the scale of the striations these changes in PV are largely induced by the eddy flux of layer thickness. The fact that eddy fluxes contribute to the striations’ time-mean PV budget suggests that the striations are not a kinematical artifact of time-averaging of westward-propagating eddies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Profs. S.-P. Xie and D. Chelton for valuable discussions. We thank two anonymous reviewers whose criticism led to considerably improved version of this manuscript. This research was supported by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) Ocean Surface Topography Science Team through grant NNX08AR49G. This work was also partially supported by the Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), by NASA through grant NNX07AG53G, and by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through grant NA17RJ1230, which sponsors research at the International Pacific Research Center. The OFES runs were performed on the Earth Simulator under the sponsorship of Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology. We acknowledge the use of freely available data from the Aviso group. IPRC/SOEST contribution 666/7881.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, POST #401, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Oleg V. Melnichenko, Nikolai A. Maximenko & Niklas Schneider

  2. Marine Hydrophysical Institute, 2 Kapitanskaya, Sevastopol, 99011, Ukraine

    Oleg V. Melnichenko

  3. Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Marine Science Building, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Niklas Schneider

  4. Earth Simulator Center, Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan

    Hideharu Sasaki

Authors
  1. Oleg V. Melnichenko
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  2. Nikolai A. Maximenko
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  3. Niklas Schneider
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  4. Hideharu Sasaki
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Correspondence to Oleg V. Melnichenko.

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Responsible Editor: Yukio Masumoto

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Melnichenko, O.V., Maximenko, N.A., Schneider, N. et al. Quasi-stationary striations in basin-scale oceanic circulation: vorticity balance from observations and eddy-resolving model. Ocean Dynamics 60, 653–666 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-009-0260-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-009-0260-z

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