Coherent Sea Level Variability on the North Atlantic Western Boundary

Authors

P. R. Thompson, University of South Florida
G. T. Mitchum, University of South FloridaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Keywords

sea level, North Atlantic, GECCO, decadal

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC009999

Abstract

Interannual to decadal sea level variability on the North Atlantic western boundary is surprisingly coherent over substantial distances stretching from the Caribbean to Nova Scotia. The physical mechanisms responsible for this basin-scale, low-frequency coherence are explored in a diagnosis of simulated ocean fields from GECCO, which reproduces the observations to good approximation. Coastal sea level variability on the western boundary is known to be influenced by meridional divergence in the boundary current resulting in a geostrophic tilting of the sea surface. This mechanism is found to be of leading order along some stretches of the boundary, but it does not account for the coherence spanning the western North Atlantic. Instead, the coherence along the entire boundary is accounted for by vertical divergence resulting in the uniform rise and fall of the sea surface west of the 295°E meridian. The vertical divergence is found to be due to net vertically integrated zonal transport across this meridian resulting from meridional variation in the Sverdrup transport over the basin interior.

Rights Information

Terms of use for work posted in Scholar Commons.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, v. 119, issue 9, p. 5676-5689

Scholar Commons Citation

Thompson, P. R. and Mitchum, G. T., "Coherent Sea Level Variability on the North Atlantic Western Boundary" (2014). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 2099.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2099