Instability processes in Deep Western Boundary Current along the Pernambuco plateau

• Grant number: 18/06153-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: December 01, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Physical Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Ilson Carlos Almeida da SIlveira
• Grantee: Felipe Vilela da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The climate of Earth has a broad influence of MOC (Meridional Overturning Circulation). The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) is responsible to transport North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) interhemispherically. The DWBC flows adjacent to the american continental margin and has been considerably studied between the South of Labrador Sea (48ºN) and about 35ºS, around the Eastern Brazilian coast. Nevertheless, when the current hits the latitudinal range between 5ºS and 11ºS, the DWBC instabilizes and breaks into anticyclonic vortices and migrate Southward.This proposal intends to describe and characterize the local and the kinematics and dynamics properties of DWBC around the destabilization site. The development of this study will apply the Classic Dynamics Method for hydrographic data from the commission of the Brazilian Navy: Northeast Ocean I and II. Vertical and horizontal standards of circulation will be described for a big range of depth averaged for the three isopycnal layers wich are used to tell NADW layers. In order to reduce the background noise in Brunt-Väisällä frequency calculation, it's suggested to estimate the Ertel's potential vorticity in this three layers. The overlay of the stream function field and the potential vorticity will allow the inference of the development and flow and identification of propagation as much as the instability of DWBC and its vortices.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MORAIS KRELLING, ANA PAULA; GANGOPADHYAY, AVIJIT; DA SILVEIRA, ILSON; VILELA-SILVA, FELIPE. Development of a feature-oriented regional modelling system for the North Brazil Undercurrent region (1 degrees-11 degrees S) and its application to a process study on the genesis of the Potiguar Eddy. JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY, MAR 2020. (18/06153-7)

VILELA-SILVA, FELIPE; SILVEIRA, ILSON C. A.; NAPOLITANO, DANTE C.; SOUZA-NETO, PEDRO W. M.; BILO, TIAGO C.; GANGOPADHYAY, AVIJIT. On the Deep Western Boundary Current Separation and Anticyclone Genesis off Northeast Brazil. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS, v. 128, n. 1, p. 21-pg., 2023-01-01. (15/21729-4, 18/06153-7, 20/04315-0)

MORAIS KRELLING, ANA PAULA; GANGOPADHYAY, AVIJIT; DA SILVEIRA, ILSON; VILELA-SILVA, FELIPE. Development of a feature-oriented regional modelling system for the North Brazil Undercurrent region (1 degrees-11 degrees S) and its application to a process study on the genesis of the Potiguar Eddy. JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY, v. 15, n. 2, p. 18-pg., 2020-03-19. (18/06153-7)