Recent observations suggest that the annual mean southward transport of the East Sakhalin Current (ESC) is significantly larger
than the annual mean Sverdrup transport. Motivated by this observational result, transport of a western boundary current has
been investigated using a simple numerical model with a western slope. This transport is defined as the instantaneous barotropic
transport integrated from the western boundary to the offshore point where the barotropic velocity vanishes. The model, forced
by seasonally varying wind stress, exhibits an annual mean of the western boundary current transport that is larger than that
of the Sverdrup transport, as observed. The southward transport from October to March in the model nearly equals the instantaneous
Sverdrup transport, while the southward transport from April to September decreases slowly. Although the Sverdrup transport
in July vanishes, the southward transport in summer nearly maintains the annual mean Sverdrup transport, because the barotropic
Rossby wave cannot intrude on the western slope. This summer transport causes the larger annual mean. Although there are some
uncertainties in the estimation of the Sverdrup transport in the Sea of Okhotsk, the seasonal variation of the southward transport
in the model is qualitatively similar to the observations. 相似文献
The recent sea-ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean is not spatially uniform, but is disproportionally large around the Northwind
Ridge and Chukchi Plateau compared to elsewhere in the Canada Basin. In the Northwind Ridge region, Pacific Summer Water (PSW)
delivered from the Bering Sea occupies the subsurface layer. The spatial distribution of warm PSW shows a quite similar pattern
to the recent ice retreat, suggesting the influence of PSW on the sea-ice reduction. To understand the regionality of the
recent ice retreat, we examine the dynamics and timing of the delivery of the PSW into this region. Here, we adopt a two-layer
linearized potential vorticity equation to investigate the behavior of Rossby waves in the presence of a topographic discontinuity
in the high latitude ocean. The analytical results show a quite different structure from those of mid-latitude basins due
to the small value of β. Incident barotropic waves excited by the sea-ice motion with large annual variation can be scattered
into both barotropic and baroclinic modes at the discontinuity. Since the scattered baroclinic Rossby wave with annual frequency
cannot propagate freely, a strong baroclinic current near the topographic discontinuity is established. The seasonal variation
of current near the topographic discontinuity would cause a kind of selective switching system for shelf water transport into
the basin. In our simple analytical model, the enhanced northward transport of summer water and reduced northward transport
of winter water are well demonstrated. The present study indicates that these basic dynamics imply that a strengthening of
the surface forcing during winter in the Canada Basin could cause sea-ice reduction in the Western Arctic through the changes
of underlying Pacific Summer Water. 相似文献
Abstract Vertical variations of geotechnical properties in the uppermost sediment layers characterize the main sedimentary processes acting on the construction and destruction of progressive‐type continental slopes. In the Gulf of Lions, the original thicknesses and distribution of the uppermost sedimentary layers of the continental slope and rise, which consist of Holocene muds overlying Pleistocene muds, have been greatly modified by erosion and several kinds of slope failure processes. Each process is typified through sets of geotechnical properties measured in the eroded or slumped sections and in the associated sediment accumulations. In slump scars, the water‐rich Holocene muds lie on fine, overconsolidated, Pleistocene muds with high plasticity and low shear strength. In bottom current‐eroded slopes, where modern sedimentation is extremely reduced, the Pleistocene muds frequently outcrop and may sometimes be overlain by a very thin layer of Holocene muds. The Pleistocene muds of eroded slopes are overconsolidated and more silty and less plastic than the Pleistocene muds from slopes affected by slope failure, their shear strength being 10 times greater. Deposits at the toe of slumps are very often formed by several superposed three‐layer units (triplets of interstratified Holocene, transitional, and Pleistocene layers) issued from retrogressive slumping occurring in the slump scars above their head area. The main body of each layer is then relatively undisturbed, showing the usual burial geotechnical gradients due to overburden pressure (i.e., decrease of water content and increase of unit weight and shear strength). At the toe of bottom current‐eroded slopes, a thick and homogeneous layer of Holocene muds overlies the Pleistocene muds; this Holocene layer has unappreciable burial depth gradient of its geotechnical parameters because of a high rate of modem and continuous deposition. 相似文献