ALBERT

Description: Meridional transport processes of water masses and tracers in the subtropical and tropical Atlantic are investigated using a regional eddy resolving model of the wind driven and thermohaline circulation. Analytical emphasis is on float simulations in the model which, complementary to Eulerian means, represent the Lagrangian view and give further insight into the spreading and pathways of characteristic water masses in this area. In the tropics and subtropics shallow 3-dimensional circulation cells are superim posed on the northward warm water transfer within the deep reaching thermohaline overturning cell (MOQ as part of the global "Conveyor Belt". Under present-day climate conditions the model shows that the equatorial thermocline is exclusively ventilated by subsurface flow within the tropical-subtropical cell (STQ of the South Atlantic). Only with a prescribed „Conveyor-ofF-Mode the STC of the North Atlantic contributes to this ventilation process with equal amounts. Throughout the year the interhemispheric transport of surface and central water masses of South Atlantic origin into the Caribbean Sea is dominated by zonal detours to the east as a consequence of die interplay of several retroflection events occuring in the North Atlantic. The eulerian mean flow field in the deep layer postulates the interhemispheric mass transport into the South Atlantic to be confined entirely to the western boundary, whereas Lagrangian means indicate intermittent eastward excursions along the equator, related to seasonally alternating zonal currents due to long Rossby waves. It was suggested that the observed characteristic eastward maximum of tracer concentrations along the equator is a consequence of rectifying effects of single or interacting equatorial waves. The model does not validate this hypothesis. The response to transport anomalies of subpolar origin and long periodicity is subject to different time-scales in both hemispheres. The fast response is confined to the northern hemisphere and dominates the first two years because of the mediating waves which at first propagate only around the North Atlantic basin. After 8 to 10 years the changes in the overtuming are not restricted to the North anymore but are apparent in both hemispheres.