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Dhruv Bhagtani

and 4 more

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a leading mode of atmospheric variability, affecting the North Atlantic Ocean on sub-seasonal to multi-decadal timescales. The NAO changes the atmospheric forcing at the ocean’s surface, including winds and surface buoyancy fluxes, both of which are known to impact large-scale gyre circulation. However, the relative role of other physical processes (such as mesoscale eddies and topography) in influencing gyre circulation under NAO variability is not fully understood. Here, we analyze a series of ocean–sea ice simulations using a barotropic vorticity budget to understand long-term response of the North Atlantic gyre circulation to NAO forcing. We find that for each standard deviation increase in the NAO index, the subtropical and subpolar gyres intensify by 0.90 Sv and 3.41 Sv (1 Sv = 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹) respectively. The NAO-induced wind stress anomalies drive approximately 90\% of the change in the subtropical gyre’s interior flow. However, in the subpolar gyre’s interior, in addition to wind stress, flow-topography interactions, stratification (influenced by surface heat fluxes), and non-linear advection significantly influence the circulation. Along the western boundary the bottom pressure torque plays a key role in steering the flow, and the vorticity input by the bottom pressure torque is partly redistributed by non-linear advection. Our study highlights the importance of both atmospheric forcing and oceanic dynamical processes in driving long-term gyre circulation responses to the NAO.

Jeffrey Parker

and 1 more

Zonal flows in rotating systems have been previously shown to be suppressed by the imposition of a background magnetic field aligned with the direction of rotation. Understanding the physics behind the suppression may be important in systems found in astrophysical fluid dynamics, such as stellar interiors. However, the mechanism of suppression has not yet been explained. In the idealized setting of a magnetized beta plane, we provide a theoretical explanation that shows how magnetic fluctuations directly counteract the growth of weak zonal flows. Two distinct calculations yield consistent conclusions. The first, which is simpler and more physically transparent, extends the Kelvin-Orr shearing wave to include magnetic fields and shows that weak, long-wavelength shear flow organizes magnetic fluctuations to absorb energy from the mean flow. The second calculation, based on the quasilinear, statistical CE2 framework, is valid for arbitrary wavelength zonal flow and predicts a self-consistent growth rate of the zonal flow. We find that a background magnetic field suppresses zonal flow if the bare Alfvén frequency is comparable to or larger than the bare Rossby frequency. However, suppression can occur for even smaller magnetic field if the resistivity is sufficiently small enough to allow sizable magnetic fluctuations. Our calculations reproduce the η/B0^2 = const. scaling that describes the boundary of zonation, as found in previous work, and we explicitly link this scaling to the amplitude of magnetic fluctuations. These results could provide a plausible explanation for why the zonal jets in Jupiter go as deep as Juno has discovered but not any deeper.

Navid Constantinou

and 1 more

Wind is an important driver of large-scale ocean currents, imparting momentum into the ocean at the sea surface. In particular, strong westerly winds help to drive the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which of key importance for the global climate system. Over the past decades observations established that the strength of the westerlies over the Southern Ocean has increased as a result of climate change forcing. This increase is consistent with global climate model simulations. The future climate state depends strongly on how will the Antarctic Circumpolar Current respond to this strengthening. Eddy saturation is a theoretical regime where the transport of the current remains insensitive to the strengthening of the westerlies. Instead, the strengthening of the westerlies energizes transient eddies. Both satellite observations and numerical simulations suggest that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is close to the eddy saturated limit. Traditionally eddy saturation has been attributed to baroclinic processes, but recent work suggests that barotropic processes that involve, e.g., standing meanders of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, can also be responsible for producing eddy-saturated states. Here, we discus the different physical entities of the“usual” baroclinic eddy saturation as well as the recent notion of barotropic eddy saturation. We assess the relative importance of barotropic and baroclinic processes in producing eddy-saturated states using numerical simulations of primitive equations in an idealized setup. Lastly, we discuss potential implications these processes have on global ocean modeling.

Andrew McC. Hogg

and 5 more