Laboratory modeling of gap-leaping and intruding western boundary currents under different climate change scenarios

Western boundary currents (WBCs), such as, the Kuroshio and the Gulf Stream, are very intense currents flowing along the western boundaries of the oceans.WBCs -and their respective extensions- have an important effect on climate because of their huge heat transports, the corresponding air–sea interactions and the role they play in sustaining the global conveyor belt. It is therefore very relevant to analyze WBC dynamics not only through observations and numerical modelling, but also by means of laboratory experiments; to this respect several rotating tank experiments have been performed in recent years.The new laboratory experiments proposed here for the Hydralab+ 19GAPWEBS project are aimed at analyzing the interactions of a WBC with gaps located along the western coast. Examples of such processes include the Gulf Stream leaping from the Yucatan to Florida and the Kuroshio leaping, and partly penetrating, through the South and East China Seas and through the wider gap separating Taiwan to Japan. In the experiments the WBC is produced by a horizontally unsheared current flowing over a topographic beta slope; along the western lateral boundary a sequence of gaps of different widths simulate the openings present in the above mentioned locations.