Ventilation of the North Pacific subtropical pycnocline and mode water formation

The annual subduction rate of the North Pacific was calculated based on isopycnally averaged hydrographic climatology (HydroBase), high-resolution winter mixed-layer climatology (NWMLC), and various wind stress climatologies from ship reports, numerical weather prediction products, and satellite pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Progress in oceanography 2008-06, Vol.77 (4), p.285-297
Main Authors: Suga, Toshio, Aoki, Yoshikazu, Saito, Hiroko, Hanawa, Kimio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Marine
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Summary:The annual subduction rate of the North Pacific was calculated based on isopycnally averaged hydrographic climatology (HydroBase), high-resolution winter mixed-layer climatology (NWMLC), and various wind stress climatologies from ship reports, numerical weather prediction products, and satellite products. The calculation was performed using Lagrangian coordinates in the same manner as in previous works, except a less smoothed oceanic climatology (HydroBase and NWMLC) was used instead of a World Ocean Atlas. Differences in the wind stress climatologies have very little effect on subduction rate estimates. The subduction rate census for density classes showed peaks corresponding to subtropical mode water (STMW), central mode water (CMW), and eastern subtropical mode water (ESTMW). The deeper mixed layer and the associated sharper mixed-layer fronts in the present climatology resulted in a larger lateral induction, which boosted the subduction rate, especially for the potential density anomaly ( sigma sub( psi )) range of the lighter STMW (25.0< sigma sub( psi )
ISSN:0079-6611
DOI:10.1016/j.pocean.2006.12.005