Transient Growth and Optimal Excitation of Thermohaline Variability
| Title: | Transient Growth and Optimal Excitation of Thermohaline Variability |
| Author: |
Tziperman, Eli; Ioannou, Petros J.
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors. |
| Citation: | Tziperman, Eli, and Petros J. Ioannou. 2002. Transient growth and optimal excitation of thermohaline variability. Journal of Physical Oceanography 32(12): 3427-3435. |
| Access Status: | At the direction of the depositing author this work is not currently accessible through DASH. |
| Full Text & Related Files: |
Tziperman_TransientGrowth.pdf (344.0Kb; PDF) 
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| Abstract: | The physical mechanisms of transient amplification of initial perturbations to the thermohaline circulation (THC), and of the optimal stochastic forcing of THC variability, are discussed using a simple meridional box model. Two distinct mechanisms of transient amplification are found. One such mechanism, with a transient amplification timescale of a couple of years, involves an interaction between the THC induced by rapidly decaying sea surface temperature anomalies and the THC induced by the slower-decaying salinity mode. The second mechanism of transient amplification involves an interaction between different slowly decaying salinity modes and has a typical growth timescale of decades. The optimal stochastic atmospheric forcing of heat and freshwater fluxes are calculated as well. It is shown that the optimal forcing induces low-frequency THC variability by exciting the salinity-dominated variability modes of the THC. |
| Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2002)032<3427:TGAOEO>2.0.CO;2 |
| Other Sources: | http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0485(2002)032%3C3427:TGAOEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2 |
| Citable link to this page: | http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3425929 |
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FAS Scholarly Articles [5128]
Peer reviewed scholarly articles from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
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