Towards measuring the meridional overturning circulation from space

[摘要] We present a step towards measuring the meridional overturning circulation(MOC), i.e. the full-depth water mass transport, in the North Atlantic usingsatellite data. Using the Parallel Ocean Climate Model, we simulatesatellite observations of ocean bottom pressure and sea surface height (SSH)over the 20-year period from 1979–1998, and use a linear model to estimatethe MOC. As much as 93.5% of the variability in the smoothed transport isthereby explained. This increases to 98% when SSH and bottom pressure arefirst smoothed. We present initial studies of predicting the time evolutionof the MOC, with promising results. It should be stressed that this is aninitial step only, and that to produce an actual working system formeasuring the MOC from space would require considerable future work.

[学科分类] 海洋学与技术