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EESS Autumn Seminar: Alberto Naveira Garabato - Ocean mixing and the Meridional Overturning Circulation: A Shifting Paradigm
Department of Environmental Earth System Science Seminar: When: 12:15pm, Wednesday, November 4th Where: Yang and Yamazaki Energy and Environmental Building, Room 111 Oceanographers tend to think of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) of the ocean as a layered circulation with multiple surface sources of dense water that flows along density surfaces until it approaches a boundary, where it is mixed vertically and transits to a different level of the overturning. In this context, we like to talk about the existence of an 'ocean mixing problem', in which two different schools of thought propose the dominance of either isopycnal flows associated with mesoscale eddies or diapycnal mixing by breaking internal waves in closing the MOC by returning deep water to the upper ocean. These two paradigms result in similar-looking oceans (in terms of their temperature and salinity distributions) but may exhibit very different energetics and sensitivities to climatic forcing. In this seminar, I will discuss a collection of observational and theoretical evidence from the Southern Ocean to argue for an alternative first-order description of the MOC. This new model proposes that the two classical paradigms of ocean mixing are strongly intertwined and cannot be considered in isolation. This is so because regions where mesoscale eddies are dissipated (in particular, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current) emerge as 'hot spots' of rapid flow along and across density surfaces where water parcels may effectively short-circuit their circulation through the deep ocean Wednesday, November 04th
12:15 pm - 1:05 pm
Cost: Free & open to the publicLocation:
Y2E2 111CA Contact:
Leif ThomasEmail:
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