How much Antarctic Bottom Water enters the Atlantic

摘要: We give a theoretical discussion of the coupling between the Atlantic Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) and North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). We exploit the fact that in most of the Atlantic basin the southward branches of AABW and NADW flow on top of each other in a Western Boundary Current and thus argue that density differences within the Atlantic AABW cell mainly arise through mixing with relatively light overlying NADW. From here, we derive expressions for the overturning strength and the vertical extension of the Atlantic AABW cell. In our theory, the strength of NADW and the external density difference∆ ρ G between inflowing AABW from the south and NADW from the north determine the volume transport and shape of the AABW cell in the Atlantic. For fixed NADW strength, AABW volume transport entering the Atlantic increases for increasing∆ ρ G. For constant∆ ρ G, AABW varies along with NADW in …