The Deacon Cell and the Other Meridional Cells of the Southern Ocean

Döös, Kristofer; Webb, D. J.

doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1994)024<0429:tdcato>2.0.co;2

Cited by 263 publications

(203 citation statements)

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“…[45] The present study contains a description of the Deacon Cell as simulated by the OCCAM model during Döös and Webb [1994], according to which the Deacon Cell does not transport water from the surface layers down to the deep ocean and most of the overturning circulation takes place along the isopycnals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lagrangian decomposition of the Deacon Cell

2008

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The meridional overturning cells in the Southern Ocean are decomposed by Lagrangian tracing using velocity and density fields simulated with an ocean general circulation model. Particular emphasis is given to the Deacon Cell. The flow is divided into four major components: (1) water circling around Antarctica in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), (2) water leaving the ACC toward the north into the three world oceans, (3) water coming from the north and joining the ACC, mainly consisting of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), and (4) interocean exchange between the three world oceans without circling around Antarctica. The Deacon Cell has an amplitude of 20 Sv, of which 6 Sv can be explained by the the east‐west tilt of the ACC, 5 Sv by the east‐west tilt of the subtropical gyre, and the remaining 9 Sv by the differences of the slope and depth of the southward transport of NADW and its return flow as less dense water. The diabatic or cross‐isopycnal Deacon Cell is only 2 Sv.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[17] The overturning stream function can be calculated as a function of density instead of depth [Döös and Webb, 1994]. In this case its value gives the total meridional transport at a certain latitude and below a certain isopycnal (density surface).…”

Section: C07028mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lagrangian decomposition of the Deacon Cell

2008

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“…The STC is very weak and the AMOC has the maximum of 20 Sv that is located in the 40°N and at the 1,000 m depth. The Deacon cell in the Southern Ocean has the maximum mass transport of about 20 Sv that is mostly confined in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) region and actually has little contribution to the net meridional mass and heat transport (Döös and Webb 1994). The annual mean thermal structure shows the reasonable equatorial thermocline strength and the upwelling latitudes, the subtropical shallow subduction region (Fig.…”

Section: Ocean Meridional Mass Streamfunctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, Deacon cell in the Southern Ocean becomes much weaker now. These features have been deliberated in many previous studies (Döös and Webb 1994;Vallis and Farneti 2009;Ferrari and Ferreira 2011;Farneti and Vallis 2013). The warm cells in both hemispheres span the temperature range from 12 °C in the mid-latitude 40-50°N/°S to near 30 °C at the equator (Fig.…”

Section: Ocean Meridional Mass Streamfunctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposing the meridional heat transport in the climate system

Yang

Wang

et al. 2014

Clim Dyn

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“…A. Polton (jpolton@ucsd.edu) parent deep cell is the result of superimposing multiple recirculations on zonally inclined isopycnals (Döös and Webb, 1994). While being an idealisation, this decomposition allows one to consider the three-dimensional circulation as the superposition of two quasi two-dimensional cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overturning cells in the Southern Ocean and subtropical gyres

Polton

Marshall

2007

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. The circulation of the subtropical gyres can be decomposed into a horizontal recirculation along contours of constant Bernoulli potential and an overturning circulation across these contours. While the geometry and topology of Bernoulli contours is more complicated in the subtropical gyres than in the Southern Ocean, these subtropical overturning circulations are very much analogous to the overturning cell found in the Southern Ocean. This analogy is formalised through an exact integral constraint, including the rectified effects of transient eddies. The constraint can be interpreted either in terms of vertical fluxes of potential vorticity, or equivalently as an integral buoyancy budget for an imaginary fluid parcel recirculating around a closed Bernoulli contour. Under conditions of vanishing buoyancy and mechanical forcing, the constraint reduces to a generalised nonacceleration condition, under which the Eulerian-mean and eddy-induced overturning circulations exactly compensate. The terms in the integral constraint are diagnosed in an eddypermitting ocean model in both the North Pacific subtropical gyre and the Southern Ocean. The extent to which the Eulerian-mean and eddy-induced overturning circulations compensate is discussed in each case.

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The Deacon Cell and the Other Meridional Cells of the Southern Ocean

Cited by 263 publications

References 0 publications

Lagrangian decomposition of the Deacon Cell

Lagrangian decomposition of the Deacon Cell

Decomposing the meridional heat transport in the climate system

Overturning cells in the Southern Ocean and subtropical gyres

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