Imperial College London

ProfessorRalfToumi

Faculty of Natural SciencesThe Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Co-Director, Grantham Institute - Climate Change&Environment
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7668r.toumi Website CV

 
 
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Location

 

713Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{bruneau:2017:10.1002/2017GL075182,
author = {bruneau, N and zika, J and Toumi, R},
doi = {10.1002/2017GL075182},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
pages = {9893--9900},
title = {Can the ocean’s heat engine control horizontal circulation? Insights from the Caspian Sea.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075182},
volume = {44},
year = {2017}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - We investigate the role of the ocean's heat engine in setting horizontal circulation using a numerical model of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea can be seen as a virtual laboratory - a compromise between realistic global models which are hampered by long equilibration times and idealized basin geometry models which are not constrained by observations. We find that increases in vertical mixing drive stronger thermally direct overturning and consequent conversion of available potential to kinetic energy. Numerical solutions with water mass structures closest to observations overturn 0.02 − 0.04 x 106m3/s(Sv) representing the first estimate of Caspian Sea overturning. Our results also suggest that the overturning is thermally-forced increasing in intensity with increasing vertical diffusivity. Finally, stronger thermally direct overturning is associated with a stronger horizontal circulation in the Caspian Sea. This suggests the ocean's heat engine can strongly impact broader horizontal circulations in the ocean.
AU - bruneau,N
AU - zika,J
AU - Toumi,R
DO - 10.1002/2017GL075182
EP - 9900
PY - 2017///
SN - 0094-8276
SP - 9893
TI - Can the ocean’s heat engine control horizontal circulation? Insights from the Caspian Sea.
T2 - Geophysical Research Letters
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075182
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/51030
VL - 44
ER -