AN: OS45G-15
TI: The WOCE--Era 3--D Pacific Ocean Circulation
AU: Cook, M F
EM: mcook@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanogrpahic Institution, Clark 3, MS 21, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: * Macdonald, A M
EM: amacdonald@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanogrpahic Institution, Clark 3, MS 21, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Mecking, S
EM: smecking@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanogrpahic Institution, Clark 3, MS 21, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Toole, J M
EM: jtoole@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanogrpahic Institution, Clark 3, MS 21, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Robbins, P E
EM: probbins@ucsd.edu
AF: SIO/UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0230 United States
AU: Johnson, G C
EM: gjohnson@pmel.noaa.gov
AF: PMEL, 7600 Sand Point Way, NE Bldg 3, Seattle, WA 98115-6349 United States
AU: Talley, L D
EM: lynne@gyre.ucsd.edu
AF: SIO/UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0230 United States
AU: Wijffels, S E
EM: Susan.Wijffels@csiro.au
AF: CSIRO, Marine Research, GPO 1538, Hobart, 7000 Australia
AB: To address questions concerning the intensity and spatial structure of the 3-dimensional circulation within the Pacific Basin and the associated property flux divergences, data from approximately 3000 high--quality hydrographic stations collected on 40 zonal and meridional cruises have been merged into a physically--consistent model. The majority of the stations were occupied as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) which took place in the 1990's. These data were supplemented by a few pre--WOCE surveys of similar quality, and time-averaged direct--velocity and historical hydrographic measurements about the equator. An inverse box model formalism was employed to estimate the absolute along-isopycnal velocity field, the magnitude and spatial distribution of the associated diapycnal flow and the corresponding advective and diapycnal--diffusive property flux divergences where they exist. The resulting large--scale WOCE Pacific circulation can be described as two shallow overturning cells, one in each hemisphere within the subtropics, and a single deep cell which brings abyssal waters from the Southern Ocean into the Pacific where they upwell to mid-depth and are returned south. Upwelling is seen to occur throughout most of the basin with generally larger diapycnal transport and greater diapycnal diffusivities at depth. The pattern of ocean heat transport divergence is shown to be similar to estimates of air-sea heat exchange found in the literature; best agreement is obtained with the results of Josey et al. (1998). Our analyzed data set has been submitted to the WOCE Hydrographic Program Office (now known as CCHDO,CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office, http://cchdo.ucsd.edu).