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Agulhas ring formation as a barotropic instability of the retroflection
Author(s) -
Weijer Wilbert,
Zharkov Volodymyr,
Nof Doron,
Dijkstra Henk A.,
Ruijter Wilhelmus P. M.,
Scheltinga Arjen Terwisscha,
Wubs Fred
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2013gl057751
Subject(s) - barotropic fluid , instability , climatology , geology , mode water , structural basin , general circulation model , oceanography , mechanics , physics , geomorphology , ocean gyre , subtropics , climate change , fishery , biology
Agulhas Leakage is an important link in the global ocean circulation, as it transfers a significant volume of relatively warm and salty water from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. The main route of this transfer is through the shedding of large Agulhas rings from the Agulhas retroflection. In this paper we study the dynamics of the ring formation process by analyzing the stability of the Indian/Atlantic supergyre in a reduced gravity model. We show that the ring‒shedding process results from a barotropic instability of the steady circulation in the Agulhas retroflection region. The destabilizing mode appears to be linked to a Rossby basin mode of the combined South Indian/Atlantic basin, which is localized in the retroflection region by the background flow.