Publication Date:
2022-10-26
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. 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-Oceans 124(2), (2019): 1322-1330, doi:10.1029/2018JC014106.
Description:
A Lagrangian model is constructed for a surface column of initial height h(0) that propagates at an average speed u and is subject to excess (i.e., net) evaporation of q m/year. It is shown that these parameters combine to form an evaporation length, L = uh(0)/q, which provides an estimate for the distance the column must travel before evaporating completely. While these changes in the surface water level due to evaporation are compensated by entrainment of water into the overall column, the changes in either near‐surface salinity or isotopic compositions are retained and can be measured. Observations of surface salinity and isotopic compositions of δ18O and δD along 1,000‐ to 3,500‐km long transects are used to estimate values of L in the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and Gulf Stream. The variations of salinity, δ18O and δD in all four basins are linear. As anticipated, the estimated value of L is smallest in the slowly moving and arid Red Sea and is greatest in the fast‐moving Gulf Stream.
Description:
The salinity and δ18O data collected aboard the Indian Ocean cruise described in Srivastava et al. (2007) can be accessed at this website (https://www.nodc.noaa.gov). The salinity, δ18O and δD data collected during the Red Sea cruise of the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, Eilat, described in Steiner et al. (2014) and can be accessed in the supporting information section of doi: 10.1073/pnas.1414323111. H. B. acknowledges the support provided by the Eshkol Foundation of the Israel Ministry of Science.
Description:
2019-07-26
Keywords:
Air-sea interaction
;
Evaporation
;
Semienclosed basins
;
Salinity
;
Stable isotopes
;
Thermohaline circulation
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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