The relationship between sea-level and bottom pressure variability in an eddy-permitting ocean model

We investigate the relationship between sea-level (after
application of an inverse-barometer correction) and ocean
bottom pressure, in an eddy-permitting ocean model. We
find the presence of eddies can disrupt this relationship even
on timescales as short as 10–20 days, but only in the
regions of most energetic eddy variability. Away from
eddies, the relationship is similar to that seen in a coarserresolution
model, with a tight relationship between sea-level
and bottom pressure at high frequencies, but with significant
correlations between sea-level and bottom pressure at
interannual timescales seen only in shelf sea regions. In
the deep ocean, regions where sea-level and bottom pressure
remain related out to the longest timescales are in the Arctic
Ocean and regions of the Southern Ocean, where particularly
large amplitude barotropic fluctuations are found but where
the mesoscale signal is weak