Relative strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

David P. Marshall; Helen L. Johnson

doi:10.1080/16000870.2017.1338884

Relative strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Tellus

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1

By: David P. Marshall and Helen L. Johnson

Open Access

|Jan 2017

Abstract

A simple relationship, based on thermal wind balance, is derived that relates the relative strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to the ratios of three depth scales: the e-folding depth of the global stratification, the depth of maximum overturning streamfunction and the maximum depth of the ACC. For realistic values of these depth scales, the relationship predicts a factor 8±4 difference in the volume transports of the ACC and AMOC, consistent with the observation-based ratio of 8 ± 2.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2017.1338884 | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 1338884 - 1338884

Submitted on: Dec 22, 2016

Accepted on: May 29, 2017

Published on: Jan 1, 2017

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

meridional boundaries

© 2017 David P. Marshall, Helen L. Johnson, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1