Complexity of Mesoscale Eddy Diffusivity in the Ocean

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Kamenkovich, Igor ; Berloff, Pavel ; Haigh, Michael ; Sun, Luolin ; Lu, Yueyang
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
• Description:
  Stirring of water by mesoscale currents (“eddies”) leads to large‐scale transport of many important oceanic properties (“tracers”). These eddy‐induced transports can be related to the large‐scale tracer gradients, using the concept of turbulent diffusion. The concept is widely used to describe these transports in the real ocean and to represent them in climate models. This study focuses on the inherent complexity of the corresponding coefficient tensor (“K‐tensor”) and its components, defined here in all its spatio‐temporal complexity. Results demonstrate that this comprehensive K‐tensor is space‐, time‐, direction‐ and tracer‐dependent. Using numerical simulations with both idealized and comprehensive models of the Atlantic circulation, we show that these properties lead to upgradient eddy fluxes and the potential importance of all tensor components. The uncovered complexity of the eddy transports calls for reconsideration of how they are estimated in practice, included in the general circulation models and theoretically interpreted.
• Keywords:
  General Earth And Planetary Sciences Geophysics General Earth And Planetary Sciences General Earth And Planetary Sciences
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters, 48(5)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl091719
• ISSN:
  0094-8276 ; 1944-8007
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA16OAR4310165
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1503babe043225a0695725be32e320d2bffb50657b3981a80facf26f50d1b85d
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/59709/noaa_59709_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.00 MB ]