A Simple Model of Mass-driven Abyssal Circulation over a General Bottom Topography

Abstract

Abstract The classic Stommel–Arons problem is revisited in the context of a basin with a general bottom topography containing an equator. Topography is taken to be smoothly varying and, as such, there are no vertical side walls in the problem. The perimeter of the abyssal basin is thus defined as the curve along which the layer depth vanishes. Because of this, it is not required that the component of horizontal velocity perpendicular to the boundary curve vanish on the boundary. Planetary geostrophic dynamics leads to a characteristic equation for the interface height field in which characteristics typically originate from a single point located on the eastern edge of the basin at the equator. For a simple choice of topography it is possible to solve the problem analytically. In the linear limit of weak forcing, the solution exhibits an intensified flow on the western edge of the basin. This flow is pan of the interior solution and is thus not a traditional, dissipative western boundary current. When the ...