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Free keywords:
MERIDIONAL OVERTURNING CIRCULATION; ANTARCTIC CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT; HYDROGRAPHIC DATA; NORTH-ATLANTIC; DRAKE PASSAGE; VARIABILITY; WATER;
HEAT; MASS; DEEP
Abstract:
An estimate of global time-varying ocean volume transports is provided for the period 1960-2001 as it results from the German ECCO (GECCO) synthesis. Results confirm previously discussed mean-state ocean circulation systems, encompassing an upper meridional cell in the Atlantic with sinking in the North Atlantic connected to a lower meridional cell with sinking around Antarctica in the Pacific and Atlantic. Decadal to interdecadal variability as well as long-term trends of global ocean transport, analyzed over the course of the 42 years, appear as a reorganization of time-mean circulation structures, including the layer transports in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the circulation involving the Indo-Pacific exchange. Citation: Wang, W., A. Kohl, and D. Stammer (2010), Estimates of global ocean volume transports during 1960 through 2001, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L15601, doi: 10.1029/2010GL043949.
