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  • 1
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    Production and destruction of eddy kinetic energy in forced submesoscale eddy-resolving simulations (2016)
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ocean Modelling 105 (2016): 44-59, doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.07.002.
    Description: We study the production and dissipation of the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in a submesoscale eddy field forced with downfront winds using the Process Study Ocean Model (PSOM) with a horizontal grid resolution of 0.5 km. We simulate an idealized 100 m deep mixed-layer front initially in geostrophic balance with a jet in a domain that permits eddies within a range of O(1km–100 km). The vertical eddy viscosities and the dissipation are parameterized using four different subgrid vertical mixing parameterizations: the k−ϵ,k−ϵ, the KPP, and two different constant eddy viscosity and diffusivity profiles with a magnitude of O(10−2m2s−1) in the mixed layer. Our study shows that strong vertical eddy viscosities near the surface reduce the parameterized dissipation, whereas strong vertical eddy diffusivities reduce the lateral buoyancy gradients and consequently the rate of restratification by mixed-layer instabilities (MLI). Our simulations show that near the surface, the spatial variability of the dissipation along the periphery of the eddies depends on the relative alignment of the ageostrophic and geostrophic shear. Analysis of the resolved EKE budgets in the frontal region from the simulations show important similarities between the vertical structure of the EKE budget produced by the k−ϵk−ϵ and KPP parameterizations, and earlier LES studies. Such an agreement is absent in the simulations using constant eddy-viscosity parameterizations.
    Description: This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research Grant (N00014-09-1-0196).
    Description: 2018-07-16
    Keywords: Submesoscale ; Mixed layer ; Dissipation ; Eddies ; Restratification ; Vertical mixing
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Preprint
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  • 2
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    Enhancement in vertical fluxes at a front by mesoscale-submesoscale coupling (2015)
    John Wiley & Sons
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 8495–8511, doi:10.1002/2014JC010211.
    Description: Oceanic frontal instabilities are of importance for the vertical exchange of properties in the ocean. Submesoscale, O(1) Rossby number, dynamics are particularly relevant for inducing the vertical (and lateral) flux of buoyancy and tracers in the mixed layer, but how these couple with the stratified pycnocline is less clear. Observations show surface fronts often persist beneath the mixed layer. Here we use idealized, three-dimensional model simulations to show how surface fronts that extend deeper into the pycnocline invoke enhanced vertical fluxes through the coupling of submesoscale and mesoscale instabilities. We contrast simulations in which the front is restricted to the mixed layer with those in which it extends deeper. For the deeper fronts, we examine the effect of density stratification on the vertical coupling. Our results show deep fronts can dynamically couple the mixed layer and pycnocline on time scales that increase with the peak stratification beneath the mixed layer. Eddies in the interior generate skew fluxes of buoyancy and tracer oriented along isopycnals, thus providing an adiabatic pathway for the interior to interact with the mixed layer at fronts. The vertical enhancement of tracer fluxes through the mesoscale-submesoscale coupling described here is thus relevant to the vertical supply of nutrients for phytoplankton in the ocean. A further implication for wind-forced fronts is that the vertical structure of the stream function characterizing the exchange between the interior and the mixed layer exhibits significant qualitative differences compared to a linear combination of existing parameterizations of submesoscale eddies in the mixed layer and mesoscale eddies in the interior. The discrepancies are most severe within the mixed layer suggesting a potential role for Ekman-layer dynamics absent in existing submesoscale parameterizations.
    Description: S.R. and A.T. acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF OCE-0928138) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-09-1-0196, ONR N00014-12-1-0101). A.M. acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF OCE-0928617) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-12-1-0101).
    Description: 2015-06-11
    Keywords: Submesoscale ; Mixed layer ; Meso-submeso coupling ; Deep fronts
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Format: application/pdf
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  • 3
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    Coherent pathways for subduction from the surface mixed layer at ocean fronts (2021)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-10-26
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2021. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 126(5), (2021): e2020JC017042, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC017042.
    Description: In frontal zones, water masses that are tens of kilometers in extent with origins in the mixed layer can be identified in the pycnocline for days to months. Here, we explore the pathways and mechanisms of subduction, the process by which water from the surface mixed layer makes its way into the pycnocline, using a submesoscale-resolving numerical model of a mesoscale front. By identifying Lagrangian trajectories of water parcels that exit the mixed layer, we study the evolution of dynamical properties from a statistical standpoint. Velocity- and buoyancy-gradients increase as water parcels experience both mesoscale (geostrophic) and submesoscale (ageostrophic) frontogenesis and subduct beneath the mixed layer into the stratified pycnocline along isopycnals that outcrop in the mixed layer. Subduction is transient and occurs in coherent regions along the front, the spatial and temporal scales of which influence the scales of the subducted water masses in the pycnocline. An examination of specific subduction events reveals a range of submesoscale features that support subduction. Contrary to the forced submesoscale processes that sequester low potential vorticity (PV) anomalies in the interior, we find that PV can be elevated in subducting water masses. The rate of subduction is of similar magnitude to previous studies (∼100 m/year), but the Lagrangian evolution of properties on water parcels and pathways that are unraveled in this study emphasize the role of submesoscale dynamics coupled with mesoscale frontogenesis.
    Description: This research was funded by the ONR CALYPSO DRI grant N00014-16-1-3130. MAF was partially funded by a Martin Fellowship from MIT.
    Keywords: Frontal dynamics ; Mixed layer ; Process study ; Submesoscale ; Vertical velocity | Lagrangian
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
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