The ECCO 1 degree global WOCE Synthesis: Mass and Property Transports

D. Stammer and C. Wunsch for the ECCO Consortium.

The ECCO global WOCE synthesis is used  to analyze ocean volume, heat 
and freshwater transports. Time-mean horizontal transports, estimated 
from this fully time-dependent constrained circulation, are now generally 
consistent with the time-independent inverse estimates from box inversions, 
with especially good agrement in the southern hemisphere. 

The estimated mean circulation around Australia involves a net volume 
transport of 11 Sv through the Indonesian Throughflow and the Mozambique 
Channel. This flow regime exists on all time scales longer than one 
month---rendering the variability in the South Pacific strongly coupled 
to that in the Indian Ocean. 

Dynamically consistent variations in the model show temporal variability 
of oceanic heat transports, heat storage and atmospheric exchanges that 
are complex and with a strong dependence upon location, depth, and 
time-scale. One can now study the dynamics of both the mean and time 
variability from the model with the reassurance that it is consistent 
with the great bulk of the WOCE observations.