Gyre-Scale Acoustic Tomography: Modeling Simulations

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ocean Acoustic Tomography was proposed by Munk and Wunsch as a method for making measurements of ocean variability over large areas. After the successful demonstration of the feasibility of the idea in the 1981 three-dimensional Mesoscale Experiment the tomography group has proposed a new experiment to be carried out in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, on ranges as long as the subtropical gyre scale. This paper address the question of which average quantities of importance for the ocean general circulation and ocean climate can be measured by tomography and with what accuracy. The paper focuses upon the following quantities i) measurement of the heat content vertical profile horizontally averaged over a tomographic section; ii) time variability of the average heat content, or average pycnocline displacement, at different depths; iii) measurement of the average pycnocline slope at different depths. To answer the above question the tomographic experiment is simulated in a given model ocean, using Holland's eddy-resolving general circulation quasi-geostrophic model. The results of the modeling simulations can be summarized as follows.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: