Sonya Legg

Improving representation of overflows in climate models: the Gravity Current Entrainment Climate Process Team

Dense water formed on continental slopes or in marginal seas enters the larger ocean circulation through overflows: localized flows of dense water through topographic constrictions and down sloping topography. Since many of the deep and intermediate water masses of the ocean originate in overflows, it is important to correctly represent their transport and mixing processes correctly in climate models. For the last 5 years, a multi-institution team of observationalists, process modelers and climate model developers has been working together to improve climate model representation of overflows. Here I will describe the organization of this climate process team and discuss the key results and new parameterizations.