Showing papers in "Journal of Physical Oceanography in 1999"

Modeling Thermodynamic Ice–Ocean Interactions at the Base of an Ice Shelf

Abstract: Models of ocean circulation beneath ice shelves are driven primarily by the heat and freshwater fluxes that are associated with phase changes at the ice–ocean boundary. Their behavior is therefore closely linked to the mathematical description of the interaction between ice and ocean that is included in the code. An hierarchy of formulations that could be used to describe this interaction is presented. The main difference between them is the treatment of turbulent transfer within the oceanic boundary layer. The computed response to various levels of thermal driving and turbulent agitation in the mixed layer is discussed, as is the effect of various treatments of the conductive heat flux into the ice shelf. The performance of the different formulations that have been used in models of sub-ice-shelf circulation is assessed in comparison with observations of the turbulent heat flux beneath sea ice. Formulations that include an explicit parameterization of the oceanic boundary layer give results that...

Seasonal Eddy Field Modulation of the North Pacific Subtropical Countercurrent: TOPEX/Poseidon Observations and Theory

Abstract: Altimetry data from the first 5…-yr TOPEX/Poseidon mission (October 1992‐December 1997) are analyzed focusing on the North Pacific Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC) near the center of the Pacific’s western subtropical gyre. The multiyear altimetry data reveal that the eastward-flowing STCC is a highly variable zonal current, whose area-averaged eddy kinetic energy level (338 cm 2 s22) reaches half the eddy kinetic energy level of the Kuroshio Extension. The eddy kinetic energy of the STCC has a well-defined annual cycle with a maximum in April/May and a minimum in December/January. The peak-to-peak amplitude of this seasonal eddy kinetic energy modulation exceeds 200 cm2 s22. No such distinct annual cycle of the eddy kinetic energy is found in any other zonal current of the North Pacific Ocean. Using a 2‰-layer reduced-gravity model representing the vertically sheared STCC‐North Equatorial Current (NEC) system, it is shown that the seasonal modulation of the STCC’s eddy field is a manifestation in the intensity of baroclinic instability. In spring the STCC‐NEC system has a large vertical velocity shear and a weak vertical stratification, subjecting it to strong baroclinic instability. In fall, reduction in the vertical velocity shear between the STCC and its underlying NEC, and intensification of the upper-layer stratification weakens the baroclinic instability. In comparison with the STCC of 198‐258N, the altimetry data reveal that the westward-flowing NEC existing between 10 8 and 158N has a relatively low eddy kinetic energy level, despite being a stronger vertically sheared zonal current than the STCC. That the NEC is less eddy energetic is shown to be due to both its presence in a low-latitude band and its unidirectional flow. Both of these factors make it more difficult to reverse the potential vorticity gradient of the mean state (i.e., satisfying the necessary condition for the baroclinic instability) in the NEC than in the STCC‐ NEC system.

The Contribution of Salt Fingers to Vertical Mixing in the North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment

Abstract: The North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment (NATRE) was performed in an area moderately favorable to salt fingers. However, the classic finger signature of a distinct thermohaline staircase caused by upgradient density flux was absent. This is likely because mixing by turbulence was sufficiently strong to disrupt the formation of permanent step and layer systems. Despite the lack of a staircase, optical shadowgraph profiles revealed that small-scale tilted laminae, previously observed in a salt-finger staircase, were abundant at the NATRE site. Using microstructure observations, the strength of salt-finger mixing has been diagnosed using a nondimensional parameter related to the ratio of the diffusivities for heat and buoyancy (Γ, “the dissipation ratio”). By examining the dissipation ratio in a parameter space of density ratio (Rρ) and Richardson number (Ri), the signal of salt fingers was discerned even under conditions where turbulent mixing also occurred. While the model for turbulence descr...

Mixing and Energetics of the Oceanic Thermohaline Circulation

Abstract: Using an idealized tube model and scaling analysis, the physics supporting the oceanic thermohaline circulation is examined. Thermal circulation in the tube model can be classified into two categories. When the cooling source is at a level higher than that of the heating source, the thermal circulation is friction-controlled; thus, mixing is not important in determining the circulation rate. When the cooling source is at a level lower than that of the heating source, the circulation is mixing controlled; thus, weak (strong) mixing will lead to weak (strong) thermal circulation. Within realistic parameter regimes the thermohaline circulation requires external sources of mechanical energy to support mixing in order to maintain the basic stratification. Thus, the oceanic circulation is only a heat conveyor belt, not a heat engine. Simple scaling shows that the meridional mass and heat fluxes are linearly proportional to the energy supplied to mixing. The rate of tidal dissipation in the open oceans (excluding the shallow marginal seas) is about 0.9‐1.3 (31012 W); the rate of potential energy generated by geothermal heating is estimated to be 0.5 3 1012 W. Accordingly, the global-mean rate of mixing inferred from oceanic climatological data is about 0.22 3 1024 m2 s21. Using a primitive equation model, numerical experiments based on a fixed energy source for mixing have been carried out in order to test the scaling law. In comparison with models under fixed rate of mixing, a model under a fixed energy for mixing is less sensitive to changes in the forcing conditions due to climatic changes. Under a surface relaxation condition for temperature and standard parameters, the model is well within the region of Hopf bifurcation, so decadal variability is expected.

Subduction of Decadal North Pacific Temperature Anomalies: Observations and Dynamics

Abstract: Observations of oceanic temperature in the upper 400 m reveal decadal signals that propagate in the thermocline along lines of constant potential vorticity from the ventilation region in the central North Pacific to approximately 18°N in the western Pacific. The propagation path and speed are well described by the geostrophic mean circulation and by a model of the ventilated thermocline. The approximate southward speed of the thermal signal of 7 mm s−1 yields a transit time of approximately eight years. The thermal anomalies appear to be forced by perturbations of the mixed layer heat budget in the subduction region of the central North Pacific east of the date line. A warm pulse was generated in the central North Pacific by a series of mild winters from 1973 to 1976 and reached 18°N around 1982. After 1978 a succession of colder winters initiated a cold anomaly in the central North Pacific that propagated along a similar path and with a similar speed as the warm anomaly, then arrived in the west...

Observations of Turbulence in a Partially Stratified Estuary

Abstract: The authors present a field study of estuarine turbulence in which profiles of Reynolds stresses were directly measured using an ADCP throughout a 25-h tidal day. The dataset that is discussed quantifies turbulent mixing for a water column in northern San Francisco Bay that experiences a sequence of states that includes a weak ebb and flood that are stratified, followed by a strong, and eventually unstratified, ebb and flood. These measurements show that energetic turbulence is confined to a bottom mixed layer by the overlying stratification. Examination of individual Reynolds stress profiles along with profiles of Richardson number and turbulent Froude number shows that the water column can be divided into regions based on the relative importance of buoyancy effects. Using the measured turbulence production rate P, the dissipation rate e is estimated. The observed turbulence had values of e/nN 2 . 20 all of the time and e/nN 2 . 200 most of the time, suggesting that the observed motions were buoyancy affected turbulence rather than internal waves. However, at times, turbulent Froude numbers in much of the upper-water column were less than one, indicating important stratification effects. Taken as a whole, the data show that stratification affects the turbulent velocity variance q2 most severely; that is, observed reductions in u9w9 are largely associated with small values of q2 rather than with a dramatic reduction in the efficiency with which turbulent motions produce momentum fluxes. Finally, the dataset is compared to predictions made using the popular Mellor‐Yamada level 2.5 closure. These comparisons show that the model tends to underestimate the turbulent kinetic energy in regions of strong stratification where the turbulence is strongly inhomogeneous and to overestimate the turbulent kinetic energy in weakly stratified regions. The length scale does not appear to compensate for these errors, and, as a result, similar errors are seen in the eddy viscosity predictions. It is hypothesized that the underestimation of q2 is due to an inaccurate parameterization of turbulence self-transport from the near-bed region to the overlying stratification.

The Wave-Driven Ocean Circulation

Abstract: Oceanic surface gravity waves have a mean Lagrangian motion, the Stokes drift. The dynamics of winddriven, basin-scale oceanic currents in the presence of Stokes drift are modified by the addition of so-called vortex forces and wave-induced material advection, as well by wave-averaged effects in the surface boundary conditions for the dynamic pressure, sea level, and vertical velocity. Some theoretical analyses previously have been made for the gravity wave influences on boundary-layer motions, including the Ekman currents. The present paper extends this theory to the basin-scale, depth-integrated circulation in a bounded domain. It is shown that the Sverdrup circulation relation, with the meridional transport proportional to the curl of the surface wind stress, applies to Lagrangian transport, while the associated Eulerian transport is shown to have a component opposite to the Stokes-drift transport. A wave-induced correction to the relation between sea level and surface dynamic pressure is also derived. Preliminary assessments are made of the relative importance of these influences using a global wind climatology and an empirical relationship between the wind and wave fields. Recommendations are made for further development and testing of this theory and for its inclusion in general circulation models.

Interior pycnocline flow from the subtropical to the Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Abstract: Interior circulation pathways from the subtropics to the equator are markedly different in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the Pacific Ocean. In the North Pacific the pycnocline shoals and strengthens dramatically under the intertropical convergence zone, separating the North Equatorial Current from the North Equatorial Countercurrent. While the high potential vorticity between these currents would intuitively seem to inhibit meridional water-property exchange between the subtopics and the equator, transient tracer analyses and some modeling studies have suggested an interior pathway from the subtropics to the equator in the pycnocline of the central North Pacific. This study delineates this pathway and estimates an upper bound for its magnitude at 5 (±1) × 109 kg s−1. In contrast, the southern branch of the South Equatorial Current clearly brings pycnocline water estimated at 15 (±1) × 109 kg s−1 from the southern subtropics directly to the equator in the South Pacific through an interi...

The Surface-Layer Heat Balance in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. Part I: Mean Seasonal Cycle*

Abstract: The surface-layer heat balance in the equatorial Pacific is examined in order to determine the processes responsible for the mean seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST). Principal datasets include multiyear time series of surface winds, upper-ocean temperature, and velocity obtained from Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoy array at four locations along the equator in the western (165°E), central (170°W), and eastern (140° and 110°W) Pacific. A blended satellite–in situ SST product and climatological surface heat fluxes based on the Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set are also used. Changes in heat storage, horizontal heat advection, and heat fluxes at the surface are estimated directly from data; vertical fluxes of heat out of the base of the mixed layer are calculated as a residual. Results indicate that, of the terms that can be directly estimated, the net surface heat flux is generally the largest term in heat balance. Zonal heat advection is important at all locations and is gen...

Dynamical Mechanisms for the South China Sea Seasonal Circulation and Thermohaline Variabilities

Abstract: The seasonal ocean circulation and the seasonal thermal structure in the South China Sea (SCS) were studied numerically using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with 20-km horizontal resolution and 23 sigma levels conforming to a realistic bottom topography. A 16-month control run was performed using climatological monthly mean wind stresses, restoring-type surface salt and heat, and observational oceanic inflow/outflow at the open boundaries. The seasonally averaged effects of isolated forcing terms are presented and analyzed from the following experiments: 1) nonlinear dynamic effects removed, 2) wind effects removed, and 3) open boundary inflow/outflow set to zero. This procedure allowed analysis of the contribution of individual parameters to the general hydrology and specific features of the SCS: for example, coastal jets, mesoscale topographic gyres, and countercurrents. The results show that the POM model has the capability of simulating seasonal variations of the SCS circulation and thermoha...

Observing Deep Convection in the Labrador Sea during Winter 1994/95

Abstract: A 12-month mooring record (May 1994–June 1995), together with accompanying PALACE float data, is used to describe an annual cycle of deep convection and restratification in the Labrador Sea. The mooring is located at 56.75°N, 52.5°W, near the former site of Ocean Weather Station Bravo, in water of 3500 m depth. This is a pilot experiment for climate monitoring, and also for studies of deep-convection dynamics. Mooring measurements include temperature (T), salinity (S), horizontal and vertical velocity, and acoustic measurement of surface winds. The floats made weekly temperature–salinity profiles between their drift level (near 1500 m) and the surface. With moderately strong cooling to the atmosphere (300 W m−2 averaged from November to March), wintertime convection penetrated from the surface to about 1750 m, overcoming the stabilizing effect of upper-ocean low-salinity water. The water column restratifies rapidly after brief vertical homogenization (in potential density, salinity, and potential temperature). Both the rapid restratification and the energetic high-frequency variations of T and S observed at the mooring are suggestive of a convection depth that varies greatly with location. Lateral variations in T and S exist down to very small scales, and these remnants of convection decay (with e-folding time 170 day) after convection ceases. Lateral variability at the scale of 100 km is verified by PALACE profiles. The Eulerian mooring effectively samples the convection in a mesoscale region of ocean as eddies sweep past it; the Lagrangian PALACE floats are complementary in sampling the geography of deep convection more widely. This laterally variable convection leaves the water column with significant vertical gradients most of the year. Convection followed by lateral mixing gives vertical salinity profiles the (misleading) appearance that a one-dimensional diffusive process is fluxing freshwater downward. During spring, summer, and fall the salinity, temperature, and buoyancy rise steadily with time throughout most of the water column. This is likely the result of mixing with the encircling boundary currents, compensating for the escape of Labrador Sea Water from the region. Low-salinity water mixes into the gyre only near the surface. The water-column heat balance is in satisfactory agreement with meteorological assimilation models. Directly observed subsurface calorimetry may be the more reliable indication of the annual-mean air–sea heat flux. Acoustic instrumentation on the mooring gave a surprisingly good time series of the vector surface wind. The three-dimensional velocity field consists of convective plumes of width 200 to 1000 m, vertical velocities of 2 to 8 cm s−1, and Rossby numbers of order unity, embedded in stronger (20 cm s−1) lateral currents associated with mesoscale eddies. Horizontal currents with timescales of several days to several months are strongly barotropic. They are suddenly energized as convection reaches great depth in early March, and develop toward a barotropic state, as also seen in models of convectively driven geostrophic turbulence in a weakly stratified, high-latitude ocean. Currents decay through the summer and autumn, apart from some persistent isolated eddies. These coherent, isolated, cold anticyclones carry cores of pure convected water long after the end of winter. Boundary currents nearby interact with the Labrador Sea gyre and provide an additional source of eddies in the interior Labrador Sea. An earlier study of the pulsation of the boundary currents is supported by observations of sudden ejection of floats from the central gyre into the boundary currents (and sudden ingestion of boundary current floats into the gyre interior), in what may be a mechanism for exchange between Labrador Sea Water and the World Ocean.

Impact of Interbasin Exchange on the Atlantic Overturning Circulation

Abstract: The thermohaline exchange between the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean is analyzed, using a dataset based on WOCE hydrographic data. It is shown that the salt and heat transports brought about by the South Atlantic subtropical gyre play an essential role in the Atlantic heat and salt budgets. It is found that on average the exported North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is fresher than the return flows (basically composed of thermocline and intermediate water), indicating that the overturning circulation (OC) exports freshwater from the Atlantic. The sensitivity of the OC to interbasin fluxes of heat and salt is studied in a 2D model, representing the Atlantic between 60°N and 30°S. The model is forced by mixed boundary conditions at the surface, and by realistic fluxes of heat and salt at its 30°S boundary. The model circulation turns out to be very sensitive to net buoyancy fluxes through the surface. Both net surface cooling and net surface saltening are sources of potential energy and impact positi...

Dynamics of the Eastern Surface Jets in the Equatorial Indian Ocean

Abstract: An hierarchy of ocean models is used to investigate the dynamics of the eastward surface jets that develop along the Indian Ocean equator during the spring and fall, the Wyrtki jets (WJs). The models vary in dynamical complexity from 2‰-layer to 4‰-layer systems, the latter including active thermodynamics, mixed layer physics, and salinity. To help identify processes, both linear and nonlinear solutions are obtained at each step in the hierarchy. Specific processes assessed are as follows: direct forcing by the wind, reflected Rossby waves, resonance, mixed layer shear, salinity effects, and the influence of the Maldive Islands. In addition, the sensitivity of solutions to forcing by different wind products is reported. Consistent with previous studies, the authors find that direct forcing by the wind is the dominant forcing mechanism of the WJs, accounting for 81% of their amplitude when there is a mixed layer. Reflected Rossby waves, resonance, and mixed layer shear are all necessary to produce jets with realistic strength and structure. Completely new results are that precipitation during the summer and fall considerably strengthens the fall WJ in the eastern ocean by thinning the mixed layer, and that the Maldive Islands help both jets to attain roughly equal strengths. In both the ship-drift data and the authors’ ‘‘best’’ solution (i.e., the solution to the highest model in the authors’ hierarchy), the semiannual response is more than twice as large as the annual one, even though the corresponding wind components have comparable amplitudes. Causes of this difference are as follows: the complex zonal structure of the annual wind, which limits the directly forced response at the annual frequency; resonance with the semiannual wind; and mixed layer shear flow, which interferes constructively (destructively) with the rest of the response for the semiannual (annual) component. Even in the most realistic solution, however, the annual component still weakens the fall WJ and strengthens the spring one in the central ocean, in contrast to the ship-drift data; this model/data discrepancy may result from model deficiencies, inaccurate driving winds, or from windage errors in the ship-drift data themselves.

Warm water paths in the equatorial Atlantic as diagnosed with a general circulation model

Abstract: Monthly mean velocity fields from a global ocean general circulation model are used to study the main circulation patterns within the upper 1200 m of the equatorial Atlantic. Some recently developed Lagrangian techniques are used to picture and quantify the routes followed in the model by distinct water mass classes, defined by their initial temperature on model transatlantic sections at 10°S and 10°N. The qualitative description in terms of equatorial pathways of this warm component of the so-called global “conveyor belt” is found coherent with the most recent circulation schemes inferred from direct measurements. Diagnostics emphasize the crucial role of the western boundary current system and that of the equatorial subsurface jets in distributing the flow in the equatorial domain, both for northward-flowing and southward-recirculating warm water masses. As the model tracer fields are constrained to remain close to the observed climatology outside the equatorial strip, the circulation calculate...

Penetration of Buoyant Coastal Discharge onto the Continental Shelf: A Numerical Model Experiment

Abstract: Plumes of buoyant water produced by inflow from rivers and estuaries are common on the continental shelf. Typically they turn anticyclonically to flow alongshelf as buoyancy-driven coastal currents. During this passage, mixing with ambient shelf water gradually erodes the plume buoyancy so that its alongshelf penetration is finite. This paper addresses the extent of this penetration and how it is determined by fundamental dimensionless flow parameters. A three-dimensional numerical model is applied to an idealized flow regime. Ambient shelf conditions include tidal motion, but neither wind stress nor ambient alongshelf current. The alongshelf extent of penetration is evaluated after the plume reaches a stationary condition downshelf. A total of 66 model experiments are conducted, including variations in buoyant source and ambient shelf properties. Five dimensionless parameters determine the alongshelf and across-shelf penetration, the latter the coastal current width. The most critical of these i...

The Role of Mesoscale Eddies in the Source Regions of the Agulhas Current

Abstract: A primitive equation model to study the dynamics of the Agulhas system has been developed. The model domain covers the South Atlantic and the south Indian Ocean with a resolution of ⅓° in the Agulhas region while coarser outside. It is driven by a climatology of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is shown that the model simulates the Agulhas Current, its retroflection, and the ring shedding successfully. The model results show baroclinic anticyclonic eddies in the Mozambique Channel and east of Madagascar, which travel toward the northern Agulhas Current. After the eddies reach the current they are advected southward with the mean flow. Due to the limited numerical resolution only a few eddies reach the retroflection region without much modification. These eddies are responsible for drastic enhancement of the heat transfer from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic and lead to periodicities in the interoceanic heat transport of about 50 days superimposed on the seasonal variability. Combined satellite data from TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 show that the observed vortices in the Mozambique Channel are comparable to those seen in the model. In contrast to this the simulated eddies east of Madagascar seem not to be well reproduced. Analyses of the energy conversion terms between the mean flow and the eddies suggest that barotropic instability plays an important role in the generation of Mozambique Channel eddies. For the generation of Agulhas rings and other eddy structures in the model the barotropic instability mechanism seems to be minor, and baroclinic instability mechanisms are more likely.

The impact of melting ice on ocean waters

Abstract: Ice melts when it is in contact with ocean waters that have temperatures above the in situ freezing point. The product is a mixture of meltwater and seawater having properties intermediate between those of the two components. Density is one of the properties that is affected, and this has important implications for how the melt-induced changes are eventually manifested. Although the direct impact of melting is to cool and dilute the ocean, subsequent convection can carry the products of melting to parts of the water column where they are comparatively warm and salty. These principles are illustrated with a set of observations from the continental shelf of the Amundsen Sea. Measurements made near a floating glacier are used to calculate the concentration of meltwater in the water column. Concentrations approaching 2% are associated with comparatively high temperatures, low dissolved oxygen concentrations, and negligible stable isotope anomalies. The impact of drifting icebergs on the Southern Ocea...

Estuarine Adjustment to Changes in River Flow and Tidal Mixing

Abstract: The adjustment of estuarine circulation and density to changes in river flow and tidal mixing is investigated using analytical and numerical models. Tidally averaged momentum and salinity equations in a rectangular estuary are vertically averaged over two levels, resulting in equations that are analytically tractable while retaining a broad range of time-dependent behavior. It is found that both strongly stratified and well-mixed estuaries respond rapidly to either type of forcing change, while those of intermediate stratification respond more slowly. Intermediate estuaries also have the greatest sensitivity to change. Exchange flow dominates the up-estuary salt flux in strongly stratified cases. Changing the river flow in such cases leads to an internal wave propagating the length of the estuary, which accomplishes much of the adjustment. The internal wave speed thus controls the adjustment time. Increased tidal mixing in strongly stratified cases initially decreases the exchange flow contributi...

Wind-Driven Currents in the Tropical Pacific

Abstract: An analysis is made of the ensemble mean ageostrophic near-surface circulation measured by 1503 Lagrangian drifters drogued to 15-m depth in the tropical Pacific between 1987 and 1994. It was found that the physical model of the wind-driven currents in a weakly stratified upper layer, in which the Richardson number remains near unity, accounts for 40% of the vector variance of the observations. In such a model, the amplitude of the current is proportional to u∗(N/f)1/2 and the depth scale of the wind-driven layer is proportional to u∗(N/f)−1/2. When the ageostrophic currents at 15-m depth are binned by the scaled Ekman depth, a net rotation of 0.87 radians was observed through the layer depth. These measurements suggest that the vertical austausch coefficient of the upper ocean is proportional to u2∗/N. Ekman proposed such a model based on two reports of wind-driven currents in 1905 at widely separated latitudes.

A Climatology of the Circulation and Water Mass Distribution near the Philippine Coast

Abstract: This study provides a climatology of the circulation and water mass distribution by using historical data combined with observations from dozens of recent cruises near the Philippine coast. The most striking results are related to the poleward contraction of the subtropical gyre on denser surfaces, with the bifurcation of the North Equatorial Current moving from about 15°N in the upper thermocline to about 20°N at intermediate depths. Though time variability and the possible errors in the data are rather large, the Halmahera eddy (HE) is clearly seen in the climatic mean fields, lying at about 3°N, 130°E near the surface and reaching the Mindanao coast on density surfaces around 27.2σθ. It seems that the previously observed Mindanao Undercurrent is merely a component of the recirculation associated with the HE. North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW) and Intermediate Water (NPIW) enter the western ocean with their extreme properties centered at 15° and 20°N, respectively, and continue southward as fa...

Seasonal Variability in the Equatorial Pacific

Abstract: Five to nine years of observations from the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array in the tropical Pacific are used to document the seasonal cycle of surface winds, zonal currents, SST, thermocline depth, and dynamic height. Along the equator, the normally westward surface zonal current reverses direction in late boreal spring and early summer. This seasonal variation in the zonal surface current propagates westward, as do seasonal variations in the Equatorial Undercurrent and zonal surface winds at the equator. At 5°N and 5°S, the seasonal variations in the 20°C isotherm and dynamic height also propagate westward. Conversely at the equator in the eastern and central Pacific, the variations in 20°C isotherm depth and dynamic height propagate eastward. These seasonal variations are interpreted by means of a simple dynamical model based on linear equatorial wave theory. Model results indicate that seasonal variability between 5°N and 5°S is dominated by wind-forced equatorial Kelvin waves and first meridi...

Wind Sea Growth and Dissipation in the Open Ocean

Abstract: Wind sea growth and dissipation in a swell-dominated, open ocean environment is investigated to explore the use of wave parameters in air–sea process modeling. Wind, wave, and whitecap observations are used from the Gulf of Alaska surface scatter and air–sea interaction experiment (Critical Sea Test-7, Phase 2), conducted 24 February through 1 March 1992. Wind sea components are extracted from buoy directional wave spectra using an inverted catchment area approach for peak isolation with both wave age criteria and an equilibrium range threshold used to classify the wind sea spectral domain. Dimensionless wind sea energy is found to scale with inverse wave age independently of swell. However, wind trend causes significant variations, such as underdeveloped seas during rising winds. These important effects are neglected in wind-forced air–sea process models. The total rate of wave energy dissipation is conveniently estimated using concepts from the Phillips equilibrium range theory. Replacing wind ...

Ocean Heat Flux in the Central Weddell Sea during Winter

Abstract: Seasonal sea ice, which plays a pivotal role in air–sea interaction in the Weddell Sea (a region of large deep-water formation with potential impact on climate), depends critically on heat flux from the deep ocean. During the austral winter of 1994, an intensive process-oriented field program named the Antarctic Zone Flux Experiment measured upper-ocean turbulent fluxes during two short manned ice-drift station experiments near the Maud Rise seamount region of the Weddell Sea. Unmanned data buoys left at the site of the first manned drift provided a season-long time series of ice motion, mixed layer temperature and salinity, plus a (truncated) high-resolution record of temperature within the ice column. Direct turbulence flux measurements made in the ocean boundary layer during the manned drift stations were extended to the ice–ocean interface with a “mixing length” model and were used to evaluate parameters in bulk expressions for interfacial stress (a “Rossby similarity” drag law) and ocean-to-...

Near-Bottom Turbulence Measurements in a Partially Mixed Estuary: Turbulent Energy Balance, Velocity Structure, and Along-Channel Momentum Balance

Abstract: A set of moored, bottom-mounted and shipboard measurements, obtained in a straight section of the lower Hudson estuary during late summer and early fall of 1995, determine velocity, density, and along-channel pressure gradient throughout the 15-m water column, as well as providing direct eddy-correlation estimates of Reynolds stress and indirect inertial-range estimates of dissipation within 3 m of the bottom. The analysis focuses on testing 1) a simplified turbulent kinetic energy equation, in which production balances dissipation; 2) the Prandtl–Karman law of the wall, which is a relationship between bottom stress and near-bottom velocity gradient; and 3) a simplified depth-integrated along-channel momentum balance involving local acceleration, pressure gradient, and bottom stress. Estimates of production and dissipation agree well throughout the entire record. The relationship between bottom stress and velocity gradient is consistent with the law of the wall within approximately 1 m of the sea...

Geometry of Cross-Stream Mixing in a Double-Gyre Ocean Model

Abstract: New dynamical systems techniques are used to analyze fluid particle paths in an eddy resolving, barotropic ocean model of the Gulf Stream. Specifically, the existence of finite-time invariant manifolds associated with transient, mesoscale events such as ring detachment and merger is proved based on computer-assisted analytic results. These “Lagrangian” invariant manifolds completely organize the dynamics and mark the pathways by which fluid parcels may be exchanged across stream. In this way, the Lagrangian flow geometry of a detaching ring or a ring–jet interaction event, as well as the exact associated particle flux, is obtained. The detaching ring geometry indicates that a significant amount of the fluid entrained by the ring originates in a long thin region on the far side of the jet and that this region extends as far upstream as the western boundary current. In the ring–stream interaction case, particle transport occurs both to and from the ring and is concentrated in thin regions on the ne...

Diagnosing Water Mass Formation from Air–Sea Fluxes and Surface Mixing

Abstract: The formation rate of water masses and its relation to air–sea fluxes and interior mixing are examined in an isopycnic model of the North (and tropical) Atlantic that includes a mixed layer. The diagnostics follow Walin’s formulation, linking volume and potential density budgets for an isopycnal layer. The authors consider the balance between water mass production, mixing, and air–sea fluxes in the model in the context of two limit cases: (i) with no mixing, where air–sea fluxes drive water mass formation directly, and (ii) a steady state in a closed basin, where air–sea fluxes are balanced by diffusion. In such a steady state, since mixing always acts to reduce density contrast, surface forcing must act to increase it. Considered over the whole basin, including the Tropics, the model is in steady state apart from the densest layers. Most of the mixing is achieved by diapycnal diffusion in the strong density gradients within upwelling regions in the Tropics, and by entrainment into the tropical m...

Air Entrainment Processes and Bubble Size Distributions in the Surf Zone

Abstract: A new optical instrument was deployed in the surf zone in a trial experiment to measure bubble size distributions and visualize air entrainment and bubble formation mechanisms within breaking surf. Images of bubbles and the evolving air–water mixture inside and beneath breaking wave crests are presented. The images resolve features of the air–water mixture to length scales of hundreds of microns across a 3.7-cm field of view. Two qualitatively different large-scale air entrainment processes are observed. First, intrusions of air and water, thought to be created by jets penetrating the water’s surface, fragment into plumes of bubbles. Second, an air cavity trapped by the overturning wave crest is observed to disintegrate into bubbles. The timescale for the evolution from a compacted air–water mass to individual bubbles was on the order of 90 ms or less for both of these processes. In addition, small-scale air filaments hundreds of microns wide and millimeters long have been discovered beneath wave...

Validation of Vertical Mixing in an Equatorial Ocean Model Using Large Eddy Simulations and Observations

Abstract: A nonlocal K-profile parameterization (KPP) of the upper-ocean boundary layer is tested for the equatorial regions. First, the short-term performance of a one-dimensional model with KPP is found to compare favorably to large eddy simulations (LES), including nonlocal countergradient heat flux. The comparison is clean because both the surface forcing and the large-scale flow are identical in the two models. The comparison is direct because the parameterized turbulent flux profiles are explicitly computed in LES. A similar comparison is less favorable when KPP is replaced by purely downgradient diffusion with Richardson-number-dependent viscosity and diffusivity because of the absence of intense convection after sunset. Sensitivity experiments are used to establish parameter values in the interior mixing of KPP. Second, the impact of the parameterization on annual means and the seasonal cycle in a general circulation model of the upper, equatorial Pacific Ocean is described. The results of GCM runs with and without KPP are compared to annual mean profiles of zonal velocity and temperature from the TOGA-TAO array. The two GCM solutions are closer to each other than to the observations, with biases in zonal velocity in the western Pacific and in subsurface temperature in the eastern Pacific. Such comparisons are never clean because neither the wind stress and the surface heat flux nor the forcing by the large-scale flow are known to sufficient accuracy. Finally, comparisons are made of the equatorial Pacific Ocean GCM results when different heat flux formulations are used. These include bulk forcing where prescribed air temperature and humidity are used, SST forcing where the use of such ocean-controlled parameters is avoided, and a fully coupled atmospheric general circulation model where there is no prescribed control over any surface fluxes. It is concluded, especially in the eastern Pacific, that the use of specified air temperature and humidity does not overly constrain the model sea surface temperature.

Upper-Ocean Turbulence during a Westerly Wind Burst: A Comparison of Large-Eddy Simulation Results and Microstructure Measurements

Abstract: The response of the upper ocean to westerly wind forcing in the western equatorial Pacific was modeled by means of large-eddy simulation for the purpose of comparison with concurrent microstructure observations. The model was initialized using currents and hydrography measured during the Coupled Ocean‐Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) and forced using measurements of surface fluxes over a 24-h period. Comparison of turbulence statistics from the model with those estimated from concurrent measurements reveals good agreement within the mixed layer. The shortcomings of the model appear in the stratified fluid below the mixed layer, where the vertical length scales of turbulent eddies are limited by stratification and are not adequately resolved by the model. Model predictions of vertical heat and salt fluxes in the entrainment zone at the base of the mixed layer are very similar to estimates based on microstructure data.

Convective Mixing and the Thermohaline Circulation

Abstract: An idealized three-dimensional model of buoyancy-driven flow in a single hemisphere is used to investigate the relationship between the meridional overturning and the efficiency by which convective mixing eliminates static instability. In the “fast” limit (mixing timescale hours to weeks), the meridional overturning is not rate limited by the efficiency of convective mixing. If convective mixing is made less efficient, the model’s meridional overturning strength increases. Moreover, the dominant downwelling occurs not at the highest surface density;hence the deep ocean is relatively buoyant. The numerical results are explained by the different influences of convective mixing and downward advection on the deep-ocean heat budget; they underscore the fundamentally three-dimensional nature of the meridional overturning. In addition, the narrowness of deep downwelling is related to the geostrophic dynamics of deep temperature anomalies near the eastern wall. The model results presented here are in con...