Tritium distributions in an isopycnic model of the North Atlantic

Abstract

An ocean general circulation model with an isopycnic coordinate in the vertical is used to simulate the North Atlantic circulation. Tritium and helium are injected into the model after an initial spin‐up phase to assist our understanding of the model response and to validate the model itself by comparing the model data with available tracer observations. In this paper, the distribution of tritium is presented and compared with observations in 1972 (Geochemical Ocean Sections Study) and 1981 (Transient Tracers in the Ocean (TTO)). The vertical penetration of tritium in the model compares well with observations, reflecting the ventilation patterns in the subtropical and subpolar gyres and the deep overflows from the Greenland and Norwegian basin through the Denmark Strait and across the Iceland‐Faeroes rise. However, the distributions of tritium on various isopycnic layers do show discrepancies with observations, and the magnitude of tritium concentration is too high in the model. It is found that the model produces a pronounced maximum tritium concentration in the interior of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre in 1972, which is not observed. The presence of this maximum suggests that the ratio of diffusion to advection timescales (the Péclet number) is too high in the model. A simple two‐dimensional advection‐diffusion model is used to explore the relationships between the distributions of tritium and the timescales of advection and diffusion processes. These experiments suggest an upper bound on the Péclet number. A further experiment using the Atlantic isopycnic model with a decreased Péclet number shows some improvement to the distribution of tritium on the isopycnic layers. Comparisons of tritium‐helium age in 1981 between the model results and TTO data show that the model has a too rapid circulation. The lack of mixing by eddies in the model is also believed to be partially responsible for the discrepancies between the modeled tritium distributions and the observations. The good correspondence between our tritium simulation with the Atlantic isopycnic model and observations leads us to believe that the model captures the major pathways of deep ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. The model should be useful for other tracer sequestration studies. Combining models of varying complexity has proved useful in identifying and (partially) correcting deficiencies in the model and will be used in future tracer studies.