ABYSSAL CHANNEL FLOW IN OCEAN GENERAL-CIRCULATION MODELS WITH APPLICATION TO THE VEMA-CHANNEL

An idealized Cox model is shown to pass a flux given by g'H-2/2f thoug h a deep channel, single grid-box wide, consistent with analytical mod els. This flux can, however, be significantly increased or decreased b y the presence of density gradients normal to the channel in the overl ying fluid. A realistic model of the Vema Channel region predicts a no rthward Aux of AABW of 4 Sv, consistent with observations, but only on e-fourth of the predicted flux because of such overlying density gradi ents. These results suggest that in the real ocean channel fluxes cann ot be adequately predicted by one-layer reduced-gravity models, but mu st be treated as part of the mass balance for the basin-scale circulat ion.