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Barry A. Klinger | Department of Climate Dynamics , GMU Numerical models of the ocean can be used as tools for conducting experiments to better understand the circulation and other characteristics of the ocean. I will introduce the use of such numerical models and some issues that must be faced in using them to model the ocean. The ocean's deep meridional overturning circulation is a global-scale circulation system which has an important influence on climate. A significant component of this circulation, at least in the time-mean, appears to be driven by wind stress over the Southern Ocean. That wind stress may change from decade to decade, both due to internal variability and anthropogenic causes. How does this temporal variability affect the global overturning? Numerical experiments give insight into this question. An experiment with a realistic background state and an idealized wind perturbation shows the evolution of the ocean circulation driven by the perturbation. While the time-mean response to the wind appears to be strongest in the Atlantic, the response to the perturbation appears strongest in the Indo-Pacific. Further experiments with idealized geometries give insight into the behavior of the more realistic system. For instance, the initial strength of the response in each ocean basin is proportional to the basin width, causing a larger initial response in the Indo-Pacific than in the Atlantic. |