Monitoring open-ocean deep convection from space

Monitoring open-ocean deep convection from space

Modeling Open-Ocean Deep Convection

We have developed non-hydrostatic, hydro-dynamical models exploiting parallel computational architectures and languages (see Marshall et al. [1997 a, b], Hill and Marshall [1996], Adcroft et al. [1997]) that are capable of explicitly resolving the convective scale in the ocean. The model has been used to study convection modified by rotation in idealized settings; these have led to much insight...

Deep Convection in the Ocean

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES Issues specific to oceanic deep convection are the relatively strong role of rotation, such that convective Rossby numbers appropriate to the vertical motions may fall below unity; the highly intermittent nature of the forcing, with the strong impulses coming during the passage of atmospheric weather systems; the possible highly localized occurrence of deep convection; and...

Open-ocean Convection: Observations, Theory, and Models

We review what is known about the convective process in the open ocean, in which the properties of large volumes of water are changed by intermittent, deep-reaching convection, triggered by winter storms. Observational, laboratory, and modeling studies reveal a fascinating and complex interplay of convective and geostrophic scales, the large-scale circulation of the ocean, and the prevailing me...

The Relationship of Weddell Polynya and Open-Ocean Deep Convection to the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies

The Weddell Polynya of the mid-1970s is simulated in an energy balance model (EBM) sea ice–ocean coupled general circulation model (GCM) with an abrupt 20% increase in the intensity of Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerlies. This small upshift of applied wind stress is viewed as a stand in for the stronger zonal winds that developed in the mid-1970s following a long interval of relatively weak zon...