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Tracer Inverse Problems

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Oceanic Circulation Models: Combining Data and Dynamics

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIC,volume 284))

Abstract

Charts of tracer distributions, salt, oxygen, tritium, and potential vorticity such as those shown in Figs. 1 and 2 have long been the bedrock of the study of the oceanic general circulation. Much of what is believed well-determined about the circulation is derived from such figures. Few would dispute the argument that these figures show that water must flow at depth from the Mediterranean into the North Atlantic, or that ‘overflow’ water emanating from high latitudes is filling up the western North Atlantic Basin. But much confusion has been caused by failure to remember that figures such as 1 and 2 represent inventories and do not by themselves carry any information about water movement or dynamics. One might postulate that the flow which produced the Mediterranean salt tongue took place thousands of years ago, the fluid then having ‘frozen’ in place, no subsequent flow having taken place at all. That such a view is rejected is based upon information about the ocean not contained explicitly in such property distribution maps.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Carl Wunsch

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  1. Carl Wunsch
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    David L. T. Anderson

  2. Institut für Meereskunde, Universität Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Jürgen Willebrand

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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Wunsch, C. (1989). Tracer Inverse Problems. In: Anderson, D.L.T., Willebrand, J. (eds) Oceanic Circulation Models: Combining Data and Dynamics. NATO ASI Series, vol 284. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1013-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1013-3_1

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