Vorticity Transport in a Two Layer, Double Gyre Ocean Basin

The double gyre ocean circulations predicted by strongly frictional, barotropic, linearized ocean models qualitatively agree with the patterns of large scale gyres in the world ocean. However, nonlinear ocean models featuring less intense eddy diffusion parameterization can converge to an infinite number of statistically stationary circulations, depending on the parameterization of dissipation of energy and vorticity. Patterns of vorticity flux and dissipation in a barotropic ocean have been examined previous studies; in this work the inclusion of the first baroclinic mode is examined. The first vertical mode permits the model to be split into two layers, the top approximating the thermocline and the bottom approximating the abyssal circulation. The separation into two layers not only adds realism and but also removes the nonphysical direct restraint of the upper ocean by bottom friction. Steady state circulations for various boundary conditions, sources and sinks of vorticity, and Reynolds numbers are simulated using a parallel pseudo-spectral quasi-geostrophic flow solver and mechanisms of vorticity flux and dissipation are discussed.