Ratio of the Mixing Coefficients of Heat and Salt of Antarctic Bottom Water in the North Atlantic

摘要

Values of vertical eddy salt diffusivity and heat diffusivity for Antarctic Bottom Water were estimated by Whitehead and Worthington (1982) from both current meter results and geostrophic calculations. The ratios of the diffusivities have one impossible value of 0.858 for water colder than 1.1 C potential temperature for the geostrophic results. This could be evidence against the geostrophic results. However, a small interpolation error in their Tables 5 and 6 was uncovered. The corrected ratio is 1.01, which is possible, although very close to 1, and one other ratio is 0.98. Thus geostrophic calculations cannot be ruled out, but they lead to ratios very close to 1.