Abstract
Estimates of the dissipation of subinertial currents due to bottom boundary layer drag at the eastern and western boundaries of the North Atlantic ocean, between 15 N and 60 N, are computed using data from the world's largest archive of ocean current meter time series. We show from these data that a significant proportion of such loss in this region is due to dissipation at the western boundary ocean floor via quadratic bottom boundary layer drag, with an estimated 40–60% (31–47 GW) of the wind input power across the whole basin dissipated by this method. We further show that the majority of this dissipation occurs at shallow depths, <500 m; this has significant implications for the power available for abyssal mixing.
Original language | English |
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Article number | C03049 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
Volume | 117 |
Issue number | C3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2012 |