Overturning Response to a Surface Wind Stress Doubling in an Eddying and a Non-Eddying Ocean

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, the overturning responses to wind stress changes of an eddying ocean and a non-eddying ocean are compared. Differences are found in the deep overturning cell in the low-latitude North Atlantic Ocean with substantial implications for the deep western boundary current (DWBC). In an ocean-only twin experiment with one eddying and one non-eddying configuration of the MPI ocean model, two different forcings are being applied: the standard NCEP forcing and the NCEP forcing with 2× surface wind stress. The response to the wind stress doubling in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is similar in the eddying and the non-eddying configuration, showing an increase by about 4 Sv (~25%; 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1). In contrast, the DWBC responds with a speedup in the non-eddying configuration and a slowdown in the eddying configuration. This paper demonstrates that the DWBC slowdown in the eddying configuration is largely balanced by eddy vorticity fluxes. Because those fluxes are not resolved and also not captured by an eddy parameterization in the non-eddying configuration, such a DWBC slowdown is likely not to occur in non-eddying ocean models, which therefore might not capture the whole range of overturning responses. Furthermore, evidence is provided that the balancing effect of the eddies is not a passive reaction to a remotely triggered DWBC slowdown. Instead, deep eddies that are sourced from the upper ocean provide an excess input of relative vorticity that then actively forces the DWBC mean flow to slow down.