Does the Wind Control the Import and Export of the South Atlantic?

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Abstract
A different way of examining the meridional flux of warm and intermediate water (σθ < 27.50) from the Southern Ocean into the South Atlantic is proposed. The method considers the Americas to be a “pseudo island” in the sense that the continent is entirely surrounded by water but has no circulation around it. It is shown that, although the northern connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific (via the Bering Strait) is weak, it imposes severe limitations on the sea level in the Atlantic basin: so much so that it allows one to compute the meridional transport without finding the detailed solution to the complete wind–thermohaline problem. The method employs an integration of the linearized momentum equations along a closed contour containing the Americas, Greenland, the Atlantic, and parts of the Arctic Ocean. First, an idealized rectangular model involving three layers, an active continuously stratified upper layer containing both thermocline (σθ < 26.80) and intermediate water (26.80 < σθ < 27... Abstract A different way of examining the meridional flux of warm and intermediate water (σθ < 27.50) from the Southern Ocean into the South Atlantic is proposed. The method considers the Americas to be a “pseudo island” in the sense that the continent is entirely surrounded by water but has no circulation around it. It is shown that, although the northern connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific (via the Bering Strait) is weak, it imposes severe limitations on the sea level in the Atlantic basin: so much so that it allows one to compute the meridional transport without finding the detailed solution to the complete wind–thermohaline problem. The method employs an integration of the linearized momentum equations along a closed contour containing the Americas, Greenland, the Atlantic, and parts of the Arctic Ocean. First, an idealized rectangular model involving three layers, an active continuously stratified upper layer containing both thermocline (σθ < 26.80) and intermediate water (26.80 < σθ < 27...

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