Seasonal variation of global volume transport calculated from an ocean general circulation model

Abstract

Seasonal variation in global transport calculated from an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) has been assessed through the comparison with observational estimates. The OGCM based on the GFDL MOM1.1 has honzontal grid interval of 10 and 21 verticle levels, and was integrated for 31 years forced by climatological wind stress, freshwater flux, and heat flux with restoring. General features of the world ocean circulation are well reproduced, which include the western boundary currents such as the Kuroshio and the Agulhas Current, the Equatorial Current system, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and the Weddell Sea gyres. Also well resolved is the remarkable seasonal variation in the depth-integrated flows in the northern Indian Ocean due to the monsoonal wind. Monthly variation is found to be dominant in the transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current through the Drake Passage in accordance with observational estimates. It has been shown that the mid-latitude depth-integrated flows obey the Sverdrup relation, except for some regions such as continental shelf regions where the interaction between stratification and bottom topography is critical.