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Experimental evidence of long-term oceanic circulation reversals without wind influence in the North Ionian Sea
- Source :
- Scientific Reports, Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 2020, ⟨10.1038/s41598-020-57862-6⟩, Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2020)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Under the emerging features of interannual-to-decadal ocean variability, the periodical reversals of the North Ionian Gyre (NIG), driven mostly by the mechanism named Adriatic-Ionian Bimodal Oscillating System (BiOS), are known as impacting on marine physics and biogeochemistry and potentially influencing short-term regional climate predictability in the Eastern Mediterranean. Whilst it has been suggested that local wind forcing cannot explain such variability, aspects of the alternative hypothesis indicating that NIG reversals mainly arises from an internal ocean feedback mechanism alone remain largely debated. Here we demonstrate, using the results of physical experiments, performed in the world’s largest rotating tank and numerical simulations, that the main observed feature of BiOS, i.e., the switch of polarity of the near-surface circulation in the NIG, can be induced by a mere injection of dense water on a sloping bottom. Hence, BiOS is a truly oceanic mode of variability and abrupt polarity changes in circulation can arise solely from extreme dense water formation events.
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Polarity (physics)
BIOS
North Ionian Sea
Settore GEO/12 - Oceanografia e Fisica dell'Atmosfera
lcsh:Medicine
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
computer.software_genre
01 natural sciences
Article
Ocean gyre
14. Life underwater
Predictability
lcsh:Science
Climate and Earth system modelling
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean, Atmosphere
geography
Multidisciplinary
geography.geographical_feature_category
Physical oceanography
lcsh:R
Mode (statistics)
Biogeochemistry
Rotating tank
Term (time)
Oceanography
13. Climate action
lcsh:Q
computer
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports, Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 2020, ⟨10.1038/s41598-020-57862-6⟩, Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2020)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....3ea92165840285091b51dc7d502a9cf6
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57862-6⟩