Southern Ocean upwelling and eddies: sensitivity of the global overturning to the surface density range

Abstract

A simple interhemispheric ocean model is used to examine the sensitivity of water sinking in the northern hemisphere to the equator-to-pole density contrast. The model assumes that the sinking is compensated by upwelling in both the low latitude ocean and the Southern Ocean. We compare two vertical mixing schemes: one with a fixed vertical diffusivity and another with fixed mixing energy. The latter case implies that the vertical diffusivity depends on the simulated oceanic circulation. It is shown that when Southern Ocean upwelling is controlled only by northward Ekman transport, the rate of deep water formation has an opposite dependence on the equator-to-pole density contrast between the two vertical mixing schemes. However, when Southern Ocean upwelling is controlled by both Ekman transport and strong enough eddy-induced transport across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the two mixing schemes give qualitatively similar dependence: the rate of water sinking increases with the equator-to-pole density contrast, regardless of whether the diffusivity or the mixing energy is held fixed. It is suggested that the ACC eddies and vertical mixing jointly control the response of the overturning circulation to changes in the equator-to-pole density contrast.