Variabilité décennale de la circulation océanique et modes de bassin: Influence de la topographie et de la circulation moyenne

One of the potential mechanisms at the origin of climatic variability on decadal to multidecadal timescales is the thermohaline oscillation corresponding to large-scale and low frequency basin modes that result from the interaction between long planetary waves and fast inertia-gravity waves during the adjustment process. However, most of the studies dealing with this decadal oscillation were carried out in a simplified flat bottom or reduced-gravity quasigeostrophic context. This dissertation aims to study the effect of bottom topography and mean flow on the characteristics of the gravest baroclinic basin modes of variability in a mid-latitude idealized ocean basin. To that end, we make use of a two-layer shallow water (SW) model. Different bathymetries such as a flat bottom, a mid-ocean ridge and continental slopes are studied. Getting the eigenvectors from the linearized model through linear stability analysis around a state of rest reveals that (1) the selection of these modes is set by the explicit dissipation introduced in the model, (2) the oscillation period and decay rate are weakly sensitive to the form and height of the topography. Vorticity and energy budgets are computed in order to give a rationale for the decaying role of the topography via energy conversion from the baroclinic to the barotropic mode. Indeed, the barotropic flow absent in a flat bottom, results accurately from the interaction of the flat-bottomed baroclinic motion with the topographic height. However, the energy conversion under the JEBAR effect remains weaker with respect to the frictional processes. A stationary circulation is now included through wind or thermal forcing. Temporal integrations of the nonlinear model perturbed by coherent baroclinic structures with a gaussian eddy form show the strong interaction between the vortex and the topography. This interaction implies : (1) a westward acceleration of the zonal phase speed (with respect to the classic flat-bottom result), (2) a barotropic circulation built up by the ...