Ocean Science
Ocean Science
OS
Articles | Volume 16, issue 2
Articles | Volume 16, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-451-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 16, issue 2
Research article
 | 
20 Apr 2020
Research article |  | 20 Apr 2020

Barotropic vorticity balance of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre in an eddy-resolving model

Mathieu Le Corre, Jonathan Gula, and Anne-Marie Tréguier

Data sets

An improved near-surface velocity climatology for the global ocean from drifter observations L. C. Laurindo, A. J. Mariano, and R. Lumpkin https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2017.04.009

ANDRO: An Argo-based deep displacement dataset M. Ollitrault, P. Rannou, E. Brion, C. Cabanes, A. Piron, G. Reverdin, and N. Kolodziejczyk https://doi.org/10.17882/47077

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Short summary
The ocean circulation is crucial for the climate, and the North Atlantic subpolar gyre is a key component of the meridional heat transport. In this study we use a high-resolution simulation with bottom-following coordinates to investigate the gyre dynamics. We show that nonlinear processes, underestimated in most climate models, control the circulation in the gyre interior. This result contrasts with the classical theory putting forward wind effects on the large-scale circulation.
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