Forced Planetary Wave Response in a Thermocline Gyre

Abstract

The response of a thermocline gyre to anomalies in surface wind stress forcing and surface buoyancy forcing is investigated in light of planetary wave dynamics, both analytically and numerically. The author’s theory suggests that anomalous Ekman pumping most efficiently generates the non-Doppler-shift mode, which resembles the first baroclinic mode and has the clearest signal in the sea surface height field and the lower thermocline temperature field. The non-Doppler-shift mode propagates westward rapidly regardless of the mean circulation. In contrast, anomalous surface buoyancy forcing, which can be simulated by an entrainment velocity, produces the strongest response in the advective mode, which resembles the second baroclinic mode and has the largest signature in the upper thermocline temperature field. The advective mode tends to propagate in the direction of the subsurface flow, but its propagation speed may differ substantially from that of the mean flow. The theory is further substantiated by numerical experiments in three ocean models: a 3-layer eddy-resolving quasigeostrophic model, a 2.5-layer primitive equation model, and an oceanic general circulation model. Finally, relevance of the theory to recent observations of decadal variability in the upper ocean and the climate system is also discussed.