The intergyre chaotic transport

Abstract

The effect of the annual migration of the wind field on the intergyre transport is investigated in a double-gyre circulation. It is found that the trajectories of the water columns advected by the gyre-scale circulation exhibit a strongly chaotic behavior. The resulted cross-gyre chaotic transport amounts to about one-third of the Sverdrup transport. The chaotic intergyre transport causes strong mixing between the two gyres. Further parameter sensitivity studies show that the chaotic transport is strongest under the migration with frequencies from interannual to decadal, and with the migration distance about 1000 km. Some possible applications of the chaotic transport to the general oceanic circulation are also discussed. -from Authors