Interannual variations in low potential vorticity water and the subtropical countercurrent in an eddy-resolving OGCM

Journal of Oceanography - Tập 68 - Trang 139-150 - 2011
Masami Nonaka1, Shang-Ping Xie2, Hideharu Sasaki3
1Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokohama, Japan
2International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) and Department of Meteorology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA
3Earth Simulator Center, JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan

Tóm tắt

Interannual-to-decadal variations in the subtropical countercurrent (STCC) and low potential vorticity (PV) water and their relations in the North Pacific Ocean are investigated on the basis of a 60-year-long hindcast integration of an eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model. Although vertically coherent variations are dominant for STCC interannual variability, a correlation analysis shows that an intensified STCC vertical shear accompanies lower PV than usual to the north on 25.5- to 26.1-σθ isopycnal surfaces, and intensified meridional density gradient in subsurface layers, consistent with Kubokawa’s theory (J Phys Oceanogr 29:1314–1333, 1999). The low-PV signals appear at least 2 years before peaks of STCC, propagating southwestward from the subduction region.

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