Diffusion Coefficients Calculated from the Mediterranean Salinity Anomaly in the North Atlantic Ocean
Open Access
- 1 January 1975
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of Physical Oceanography
- Vol. 5 (1) , 173-182
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1975)005<0173:dccftm>2.0.co;2
Abstract
Vertical and horizontal austauch coefficients have been obtained from standard station data on the Mediterranean high-salinity tongue by use of a simple model including advection by a constant velocity and three-dimensional diffusion. It is shown that background effects can be reduced by applying the model to the salinity anomaly relative to a linear θ-S relationship. The analysis gives typical values for KH of 1.5 to 3×107 cm2 s−1 and for Kv of 0.3 to 0.7 cm2 s−1. It is argued that such values indicate the diffusion of potential density is not important in the main pycnocline of the North Atlantic anticyclonic gyre.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: