Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 111 (2006): C02006, doi:10.1029/2005JC003011.
Description:
Net northward transport below γn 〉 28.1 kgm−3 (≈3200 m) into the Perth Basin of between 4.4 and 5.8 Sv is estimated from a year-long current meter mooring array between the Broken and Naturaliste Plateaus. Northward transport of between 2.0 and 2.5 Sv of Antarctic Bottom Water (γn 〉28.2 kgm−3), that must upwell within the southern region of the Perth Basin, results in
an area-averaged diapycnal velocity and diffusivity of w*=2.5− 3.1× 10−6 ms−1 and κ = 13−15×10−4 m2s−1, respectively. Diffusivity estimates for the Perth Basin are several times larger than area averaged mixing estimates for the abyssal subtropical South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy required to maintain the abyssal mixing in the Perth basin, ε=O(10−9 Wkg−1), is similar to that required in the South Atlantic Ocean. The area-averaged diffusivity in the Perth Basin does not require unreasonable energy dissipation rates as this ocean basin is only weakly stratified. The abyssal diffuvisity of the Perth Basin results from intense mixing at the basin boundary and in the basin interior over rough topography. The complex bathymetry and low abyssal stratification suggests that the Indian Ocean, for a given energy dissipation, may support a larger meridional overturning circulation than other subtropical basins.
Description:
BMS was supported by funds from the Ocean and Climate
Change Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and The James S. Cole
and Cecily C. Selby Endowed Fund and The Penzance Endowed Fund in support of Assistant
Scientists. The mooring array was funded by Australia’s CSIRO Marine Research.
Keywords:
Water masses
;
Deep recirculation and transport
;
Turbulence
;
Diffusion
;
Indian Ocean
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
