Role of Internal Tides on Transforming the Pacific Water Into the Indonesian ThroughFlow Water in an OGCM
Abstract
The Indonesian ThroughFlow (ITF) plays an important role in the global ocean circulation and regulation. In this passage incoming warm Pacific waters undergo strong transformations due to intense mixing. This mixing is produced by internal tides that are confined within this semi-enclosed area. A specific parameterization was built to mimic this process in an OGCM. The power converted from barotropic tides into baroclinic tides is constrained by tidal model results while the vertical dependency of energy dissipation is inferred from a 2D internal tide generation model that places the maximum of energy in the thermocline. We conduct two experiments that only differ by the use or not of this parameterization. The model is significantly improved in most of the Indonesian basins, which suggests that internal tides play a major role in improving the water masses transformation and that the spatial distribution of the vertical diffusivity is adequately prescribed. The main transformations occur on the western route, around Dewakang Sill and on the eastern route in Halmahera and Seram Seas which produces the same modification in the exit even if the associated flow are significantly different.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFMOS13B1547K
- Keywords:
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- 4243 Marginal and semi-enclosed seas;
- 4255 Numerical modeling (0545;
- 0560);
- 4283 Water masses;
- 4544 Internal and inertial waves