Global observations of nonlinear mesoscale eddies

Fluid dynamics is fundamental to our understanding of the atmosphere and oceans. Although many of the same principles of fluid dynamics apply to both the atmosphere and oceans, textbooks tend to concentrate on the atmosphere, the ocean, or the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD). This textbook provides a comprehensive unified treatment of atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics. The book introduces the fundamentals of geophysical fluid dynamics, including rotation and stratification, vorticity and potential vorticity, and scaling and approximations. It discusses baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, wave-mean flow interactions and turbulence, and the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean. Student problems and exercises are included at the end of each chapter. Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics: Fundamentals and Large-Scale Circulation will be an invaluable graduate textbook on advanced courses in GFD, meteorology, atmospheric science and oceanography, and an excellent review volume for researchers. Additional resources are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521849692.

/pdf/atmospheric-and-oceanic-fluid-dynamics-fundamentals-and-299pddn1ga.pdf

Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics: Fundamentals and Large-Scale Circulation

The ocean circulation is a cause and consequence of fluid scale interactions ranging from millimeters to more than 10,000 km. Although the wind field produces a large energy input to the ocean, all but approximately 10% appears to be dissipated within about 100 m of the sea surface, rendering observations of the energy divergence necessary to maintain the full water-column flow difficult. Attention thus shifts to the physically different kinetic energy (KE) reservoirs of the circulation and their maintenance, dissipation, and possible influence on the very small scales representing irreversible molecular mixing. Oceanic KE is dominated by the geostrophic eddy field, and depending on the vertical structure (barotropic versus low-mode baroclinic), direct and inverse energy cascades are possible. The pathways toward dissipation of the dominant geostrophic eddy KE depend crucially on the direction of the cascade but are difficult to quantify because of serious observational difficulties for wavelengths shorte...

Ocean Circulation Kinetic Energy: Reservoirs, Sources, and Sinks

A unique open-ocean upwelling exists in the tropical South Indian Ocean (SIO), a result of the negative wind curl between the southeasterly trades and equatorial westerlies, raising the thermocline in the west. Analysis of in situ measurements and a model-assimilated dataset reveals a strong influence of subsurface thermocline variability on sea surface temperature (SST) in this upwelling zone. El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is found to be the dominant forcing for the SIO thermocline variability, with SST variability off Sumatra, Indonesia, also making a significant contribution. When either an El Nino or Sumatra cooling event takes place, anomalous easterlies appear in the equatorial Indian Ocean, forcing a westward-propagating downwelling Rossby wave in the SIO. In phase with this dynamic Rossby wave, there is a pronounced copropagation of SST. Moreover, a positive precipitation anomaly is found over, or just to the south of, the Rossby wave-induced positive SST anomaly, resulting in a cyclonic circulation in the surface wind field that appears to feedback onto the SST anomaly. Finally, this downwelling Rossby wave also increases tropical cyclone activity in the SIO through its SST effect. This coupled Rossby wave thus offers potential predictability for SST and tropical cyclones in the western SIO. These results suggest that models that allow for the existence of upwelling and Rossby wave dynamics will have better seasonal forecasts than ones that use a slab ocean mixed layer. The lagged-correlation analysis shows that SST anomalies off Java, Indonesia, tend to precede those off Sumatra by a season, a time lead that may further increase the Indian Ocean predictability.

/pdf/structure-and-mechanisms-of-south-indian-ocean-climate-53ctul1k0w.pdf

Structure and Mechanisms of South Indian Ocean Climate Variability

https://faculty.washington.edu/kessler/abstracts/ETPacCirculation.pdf

The circulation of the eastern tropical Pacific: A review

Global 1 83 18 climatologies of the first baroclinic gravity-wave phase speed c1 and the Rossby radius of deformation l1 are computed from climatological average temperature and salinity profiles. These new atlases are compared with previously published 5 83 58 coarse resolution maps of l1 for the Northern Hemisphere and the South Atlantic and with a 1 83 18 fine-resolution map of c1 for the tropical Pacific. It is concluded that the methods used in these earlier estimates yield values that are biased systematically low by 5%‐15% owing to seemingly minor computational errors. Geographical variations in the new high-resolution maps of c1 and l1 are discussed in terms of a WKB approximation that elucidates the effects of earth rotation, stratification, and water depth on these quantities. It is shown that the effects of temporal variations of the stratification can be neglected in the estimation of c1 and l1 at any particular location in the World Ocean. This is rationalized from consideration of the WKB approximation.

https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/d504rr38k

Geographical Variability of the First Baroclinic Rossby Radius of Deformation

To understand the characteristics of sea surface height signatures of tropical instability waves (TIWs), a linearized model of the central Pacific Ocean was developed in which the vertical structures of the state variables are projected onto a set of orthogonal baroclinic eigenvectors. In lieu of in situ current measurements with adequate spatial and temporal resolution, the mean current structure used in the model was obtained from the Parallel Ocean Climate Model (POCM). The TIWs in the linear model have cross-equatorial structure and wavenumber–frequency content similar to the TIWs in POCM, even when the vertical structures of the state variables are projected onto only the first two orthogonal baroclinic eigenvectors. Because this model is able to reproduce TIWs with relatively simple vertical structure, it is possible to examine the mechanism for the formation of TIWs. TIWs are shown to form from a resonance between two equatorial Rossby waves as the strength of the background currents is sl...

https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/27067/CheltonDudleyB.CEOAS.TropicalInstabilityWaves.pdf;sequence=1

Tropical Instability Waves as a Resonance between Equatorial Rossby Waves

Three CTD/hydrographic sections with closely-spaced stations were occupied between May 1984 and May 1987, primarily in the subpolar North Pacific. Vertical sections of CTD quantities, oxygen and nutrients are presented. Upper water properties suggest that the Subarctic Front is located south of the subtropical/subpolar gyre boundary at 152°W, that there is leakage of North Pacific Intermediate Water from the subtropical to the subpolar gyre in the eastern Pacific, and verify the poleward shift of the subtropical gyre center with depth. At intermediate depths (1000–2000 m), a separation between the western and eastern parts of the subpolar gyre is found at 180° along 47°N. Abyssal waters are oldest in the northeast, with primary sources indicated at the western boundary and north of the Hawaiian Ridge. Properties and geostrophic velocity from detailed crossings of the boundary trenches suggest that flow in the bottom of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench at the western boundary at 42°N and 47°N is northward. Very narrow boundary layers at intermediate depths are revealed in silica, as well as in the dynamical properties, at both the western and northern boundaries, and probably reflect southward and westward flow.

Transpacific sections at 47°N and 152°W: distribution of properties

A closely spaced hydrographic section from Oabu, Hawaii to 28°N, 152°W and then north along 152°W shows strong eddy or current features with dynamic height signatures of about 30 dyn cm across 150 km and associated geostrophic surface velocities of approximately 60 cm s−1. Two such features are found between Hawaii and the Subtropical Front, which is located at 32°N. Similar features have been observed on a number of other hydrographic and XBT sections perpendicular to the Hawaiian Ridge. It is hypothesized that the features are semipermanent, are due to the presence of the Ridge, and are related to the North Hawaiian Ridge Current of Mysak and Magaard.

Spatial Fluctuations North of the Hawaiian Ridge

This investigation of the physical oceanography of the Southern Ocean will carry out two parallel efforts during the years preceding the launch of TOPEX/POSEIDON. First, the Geosat data will be used to develop a preliminary descriptive picture of the mesoscale and large-scale, low-frequency surface circulation of the Southern Ocean. Some of this analysis of Geosat data has already begun. For example, as a measure of the geographical distribution of mesoscale variability, a color-coded map of the standard deviation of sea level from two years of Geosat data is shown. Efforts are presently under way to investigate the seasonal and year-to-year variability of this mesoscale energy. The data are also being used to generate low-pass filtered fields of sea level from which the temporal evolution of large-scale variability in the Southern Ocean may be investigated. The second parallel effort is the development and test of modeling and data assimilation techniques that will later be applied to TOPEX/POSEIDON data during the postlaunch phase. One objective of the modeling and data assimilation is to investigate the relation between mesoscale sea level variations and eddy flux in the Southern Ocean. Uncertainties in present estimates of the various components of meridional oceanic heat transport are large. The evidence presented indicates that the very energetic mesoscale variability in the ACC apparently accounts for much of the estimated 0.45x10(exp 15) watts of poleward heat transport across the ACC required to balance the heat budget. Eddy variability is strongly coherent vertically in the ACC, at least in the vicinity of Drake Passage where nearly all of the historical in situ data have been collected.

Roland A. deSzoeke

Papers

Geographical Variability of the First Baroclinic Rossby Radius of Deformation

Tropical Instability Waves as a Resonance between Equatorial Rossby Waves

Transpacific sections at 47°N and 152°W: distribution of properties

Spatial Fluctuations North of the Hawaiian Ridge

Mesoscale and large-scale variability of the Antarctic circumpolar current