A model of the ocean overturning circulation with two closed basins and a reentrant channel

Abstract

Zonally averaged models of the ocean overturning circulation miss important zonal exchanges of waters between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. A two-layer, two-basin model that accounts for these exchanges is introduced and suggests that in the present-day climate the overturning circulation is best described as the combination of three circulations: an adiabatic overturning circulation in the Atlantic Ocean associated with transformation of intermediate to deep waters in the north, a diabatic overturning circulation in the Indo- Pacific Ocean associated with transformation of abyssal to deep waters by mixing, and an interbasin circulation that exchanges waters geostrophically between the two oceans through the Southern Ocean. These results are supported both by theoretical analysis of the two-layer, two-basin model and by numerical simulations of a three-dimensional ocean model.