Scientific Development of a Massively Parallel Ocean Climate Model
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Authors
Semtner, Albert J. Jr.
Chervin, Robert M.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1993-05
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
During the second year of CHAMMP funding to the PIs, progress has been
made in the proposed areas of research, as follows: Investigation of the Physics of the Thermohaline Circulation
Major numerical experiments were conducted to investigate the sensitivity of
global ocean circulation and its associated transports of heat and salt to changes in
high-latitude buoyancy forcing and in wind forcing. An experiment had been designed to improve the continued production of water
masses in areas of known deep-water formation. At the same time, almost all of
the deep and abyssal regions of the world ocean were free from earlier restoring to
observed values of temperature and salinity. This •convective forcing' experiment was
run on the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Y-MP/864 for two additional
years to complete a five-year sensitivity study. A suite of analysis programs,
already converted to run on the NCAR Unix-based computers, was applied in order
to make comparisons with published results of the earlier experiment (Semtner and
Chervin, 1992). The outcome was an improved representation of the global thermohaline
circulation, as well as enhanced levels of eddy energy, particularly in the deep
and abyssal waters. The results were dramatically illustrated in a two-hour videotape
of temperature, salinity, surface height, and particle trajectories, in basin-by-basin
closeups, as produced at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) by Shirley lsakari and
Michael McCann. This "Video Atlas of Global Ocean Circulation" was distributed
upon request to over 100 scientists throughout the world. Additional quantitative results are being prepared for publication by Semtner and Chervin.
Type
Report
Description
Progress· Report for 1992-93 and Continuing Request• for 1993-94
This progress report and continuing request are being submitted in nearly identical form by each of the Co-Principal Investigators, but involving a separate budget from each investigator's home institution.
This progress report and continuing request are being submitted in nearly identical form by each of the Co-Principal Investigators, but involving a separate budget from each investigator's home institution.
Series/Report No
Department
Oceanography
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
CHAMMP
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Funder
DOE Order No. DE-A105A105-91ER61224
Format
8 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.