How and why can vertical modes or SSH recover the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation?
Zoltan Szuts1,*, Jochem Marotzke1 Max-Planck-Institut for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany The RAPID array monitors the vertical density structure across the North Atlantic at 26.5N in order to calculate the basin or interior component of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC). By decomposing density fluctuations into vertical modes whose dynamics are well understood, we test whether the theoretical assumptions of vertical modes can explain the observed fluctuations. In addition, this method extracts the first baroclinic mode for comparison with satellite altimetry. We consider two data sets: moored density or geopotential anomalies (GPA) from the RAPID temperature and salinity moorings, and sea surface height (SSH) from satellite altimetry. Because of the projects sampling strategy of using moored CTDs to measure density profiles, we developed a new decomposition technique to determine modal amplitudes from these observations. Hydrographic records are 2-day low-pass filtered to rem
