A Lagrangian analysis of the Indian-Atlantic interocean exchange in a regional model

摘要

We present a new numerical Lagrangian technique based on the coupling of transport computation with spin analysis of trajectories. This method was applied to results from a high-resolution numerical model of the oceanic region around South Africa. We estimated an Indian-Atlantic leakage of about 14 Sv. In the western Cape Basin, approximately 30% of this transport is due to trapping eddies with a ratio between cyclones and anticyclones transport of 1.3. These findings are briefly discussed with respect to recent observations of the highly nonlinear regime found in this area of the Cape Basin.