Untersuchungen zur Variabilität im Südlichen Ozean mit dem Ozeanzirkulationsmodell BARBI

Abstract

The ACC is the largest ocean current system. This current is driven directly or indirectly by the strong westerly winds, and it is one major topic of this study to investigate the variability of the ACC transport through Drake Passage due to fluctuations in these westerly winds.It is demonstrated, that the relationship between the meanzonal windstress over the southern ocean and the transportthrough Drake Passage can be described by a simple lineardynamic model, which contains the barotropic and the baroclinictime scales. Another topic of this study is the propagation of Rossbywaves under the influence of topography and the connectionof the southern ocean with the equatorial and northernlatitudes via the interaction of Rossby waves, coastal andequatorial Kelvin waves.Furthermore, the relation between the transport and the bottom pressure on the one hand, and between transport and the meridionaldifference of potential energy on the other handis studied further with a channel model.