Effect of stratification on spreading process of dense water along continental slope
Kazunori Akitomo
Department of Geophysics Graduate School of Science Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8224, Japan
Tel: 81-75-753-3923
Fax: 81-75-753-3928
akitomo@kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Kiyoshi Tanaka, Ken'ichi Yamazaki and Toshiyuki Awaji
The effct of stratification on spreading process of dense water supplied on a continental shelf into a deep ocean basin, executing numerical experiments with a three-dimensional nonhydrostatic ocean model.
The model ocean initially consists of two layer with a constant density which are divided by a strong pycnocline at the depth of about 200m. As time goes on, anticyclonic eddies formed around shelf break by baroclinic instability descend along the continental slope inducing the cyclonic circulation nearby until reaching the depth of stratification as in a homogeneous case. After that, however, only anticyclonic eddies survive and advance offshore along the pycnocline as observed in the Arctic Ocean.
These eddies have a structure almost independent of the water depth above the pycnocline. Then, some surface processes such as drag due to ice movement may be needed for the fromation of mesoscale eddies observed in the halocline in the Arctic Ocean.
