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Earth System Monitoring pp 199–232Cite as

Large-Scale Ocean Circulation: Deep Circulation and Meridional Overturning

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Abstract

Roughly half the world ocean volume lies below 2,000m depth. This deep half of the ocean is cold (<3°C), indicating that the abyssal ocean is filled with waters that sink in high latitudes, where cold surface waters are found [1]. The deep ocean circulation transports the cold waters that sink in the polar regions throughout the deep ocean basins. The transfer of surface water to the deep ocean must be balanced by an inflow of water in the upper ocean to the deep water formation regions, to conserve mass. The result is an “overturning circulation,” in which the export of cold deep waters from the source regions is balanced by a return flow of warmer water in the upper ocean. The large temperature contrast between the upper and lower limbs of the overturning circulation makes this flow pattern an efficient means of transporting heat. The large-scale overturning circulation is the primary means by which the ocean stores and transports quantities of relevance to the Earth’s climate system and biogeochemical cycles, including heat, freshwater, carbon, and nutrients. The evolution of climate is therefore influenced strongly by the overturning circulation.

This chapter was originally published as part of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology edited by Robert A. Meyers. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3

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Abbreviations

Antarctic bottom water:

A dense water mass formed near the Antarctic continental margin that spreads northward to ventilate the abyssal ocean.

Argo floats:

Autonomous profiling floats that drift with ocean currents at 1–2km depth and periodically measure temperature and salinity while rising to the sea surface, where the data is transferred by satellite.

Barotropic:

The depth-independent component of ocean currents. Direct current measurements are needed to determine the barotropic flow.

Baroclinic:

The depth-dependent component of ocean currents. The baroclinic flow can be estimated from measurements of ocean density.

Deep western boundary current:

Strong deep flows intensified along the western boundary of the basins.

Eddy:

The small-scale, time-variable component of the ocean circulation (also mesoscale eddy).

Ekman transport:

Wind-driven transport of the surface layer of the ocean to the right (left) of the wind in the northern (southern) hemisphere.

Geostrophic flow:

The large-scale flow of the oceans is in geostrophic balance, where horizontal pressure gradients are balanced by the Coriolis force.

Glider:

Like an Argo float with wings, an autonomous instrument that varies its buoyancy allowing it to move both vertically and horizontally, measuring water properties.

Hydrographic sections:

Ship transects along which measurements are made of seawater properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, carbon, nutrients).

Meridional:

In the north–south direction.

Meridional overturning circulation:

A basin-integrated view of the net north–south flow in the ocean basins.

North Atlantic deep water:

Deep water formed in high latitudes of the North Atlantic that spreads to the south in a deep western boundary current.

Ocean conveyor belt:

A highly simplified conceptual representation of the large-scale overturning circulation of the oceans.

Overturning circulation:

A global-scale network of ocean currents consisting of sinking of dense water in a small number of deep water formation regions and a compensating return flow of water in the upper ocean.

Potential vorticity:

A property of a fluid related to its rotation rate and stratification, which is approximately conserved by the large-scale ocean circulation. Analogous to angular momentum.

Sverdrup:

A unit of the volume of water carried by ocean currents (1Sv = 106m3 s−1).

Thermohaline circulation:

A term sometimes used as a synonym for the overturning circulation, or more specifically the portion of the overturning circulation driven by exchange of heat and moisture (i.e., thermohaline forcing) at the sea surface.

Ventilation:

The transfer of surface waters to the interior ocean, resulting in renewal of oxygen levels and other properties of the subsurface ocean.

Water mass:

A volume of the ocean with similar water mass properties.

Water mass formation:

The process by which surface water acquires a characteristic set of water mass properties through air–sea interaction, and transfers these properties into the ocean interior when the water mass sinks.

Zonal:

The east–west direction.

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Acknowledgments

Many of the ideas presented here were developed as part of a community-wide effort to develop plans for a sustained deep ocean observing system, as input to the OceanObs09 process.

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  1. Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, 1538, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Stephen R. Rintoul

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Correspondence to Stephen R. Rintoul .

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  1. , Scripps Insitution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive 9500, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    John Orcutt

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Rintoul, S.R. (2013). Large-Scale Ocean Circulation: Deep Circulation and Meridional Overturning. In: Orcutt, J. (eds) Earth System Monitoring. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5684-1_10

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