Vertical Structure of Ocean Pressure Variations with Application to Satellite-Gravimetric Observations

Abstract

AbstractThe nature of ocean bottom pressure () variability is considered on large spatial scales and long temporal scales. Monthly gridded estimates from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Release-05 and the new version 4 bidecadal ocean state estimate of the Consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) are used. Estimates of from GRACE and ECCO are generally in good agreement, providing an independent measure of the quality of both products. Diagnostic fields from the state estimate are used to compute barotropic (depth independent) and baroclinic (depth dependent) components. The relative roles of baroclinic and barotropic processes are found to vary with latitude and time scale: variations in at higher latitudes and shorter periods are affected by barotropic processes, whereas fluctuations at lower latitudes and longer periods can be influenced by baroclinic effects, broadly consistent with theoretical scaling arguments. Wind-driven Rossby waves and coupling of baroclinic and barotropic modes due to flow–topography interactions appear to be important influences on the baroclinic variability. Decadal simulations of monthly variability based on purely barotropic frameworks are expected to be in error by about 30% on average ( in the tropical ocean and at higher latitudes). Results have implications for applying GRACE observations to problems such as estimating transports of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.