Meridional Mass Transport of Bottom Water in the South Atlantic

Abstract

Estimates of the meridional mass transport of Antarctic Bottom Water, calculated using the coupled ocean-atmosphere Earth System Model on the basis of the original data assimilation method are presented. For assimilation, we use data of the latitudinal CTD sections of temperature and salinity of the WOCE international experiment in 1991–1995. Estimates of the current velocities of Antarctic Bottom Water with the assimilation of observational data are given. We used the author’s data-assimilation method, which was previously referred to as the generalized Kalman Filter (GKF) method. In this particular case, it coincides with the classical Kalman method (EnKF). We also present the estimates of mass transport based on a standard geostrophic dynamic scheme. It is shown that model calculations with data assimilation are qualitatively the same and are quantitatively close to the estimates of the geostrophic flow transport based on the dynamic method.