Tasman leakage: A new route in the global ocean conveyor belt

Abstract

The existence of a new route that draws relatively cold waters from the Pacific Ocean to the North Atlantic via the Tasman outflow is presented. The new route materialises with comparable magnitude and characteristics in three independent numerical realisations of the global ocean circulation. Its realism is supported by hydrographic data interpolated via an inverse model. The "Tasman leakage" constitutes a sizeable component of the upper branch of the global conveyor belt and represents an extension to the prevailing views that hitherto emphasised the routes via the Drake Passage and the Indonesian Throughflow [Gordon, 1986].