- 1Ecole Normale Supérieure, Labo. de Météorologie Dynamique, Geosciences Dept., Paris, France (ghil@lmd.ipsl.fr)
- 2Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA), CONICET – Univ. de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, AR (gisela.charo@cima.fcen.uba.ar)
- 3Institut Franco-Argentin d’Études sur le Climat et ses Impacts (IRL 3351 IFAECI), C1428EGA Buenos Aires, AR (denisse.sciamarella@cnrs.fr)
- 4Department of Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples, 80143 Naples, IT (stefano.pierini@collaboratore.uniparthenope.it)
- 5Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1565, USA (ghil@atmos.ucla.edu)
- 6Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK (michael.ghil@imperial.ac.uk)
We first present briefly recent insights on the effects of time-dependent forcing on systems with intrinsic variability, such as anthropogenic forcing on the climate system. These insights are applied next to the problem of periodic forcing of the wind-driven double-gyre problem. The topological perspective here is provided by applying recent advances in the algebraic topology of autonomously chaotic dynamic systems subject to time-dependent forcing. These advances are applied to the problem at hand.
The application starts by finding a topological representation of the underlying structure of the system’s flow in phase space by the construction of a cell complex that approximates its branched manifold and of a directed graph on this complex. The directed graph corresponds to the way that the flow in phase space moves from one cell of the complex to another.
Fundamental ingredients of the above representation, called generatexes and stripexes, delineate distinct ways of following the dynamical paths on the complex, namely the nonequivalent ways of travelling through the flow in phase space. These mathematically defined pathways will be shown to correspond to physical modes of variability.
How to cite: Ghil, M., Charó, G., Sciamarella, D., Ruiz, J., and Pierini, S.: A topological perspective on the wind-driven ocean circulation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12270, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12270, 2025.
