scholarly journals Multimodal Internal Waves Generated over a Subcritical Ridge: Impact of the Upper-Ocean Stratification

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 904-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieshuo Xie ◽  
Jiayi Pan ◽  
David A. Jay
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Strong Mixing ◽  
Energy Partition ◽  
Higher Modes ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
Nonhydrostatic Model ◽  
Mode 2 ◽  
Stratified Ocean

AbstractInteraction of barotropic tides with subsurface topography is vital to ocean mixing. Yet the behavior of large-amplitude, nonlinear, internal solitary waves (ISWs) that can cause strong mixing remains poorly understood, especially that of higher-mode and multimodal internal waves. Therefore, a 2.5-dimensional, nonhydrostatic model with adjustable vertical resolution was developed to investigate effects of upper-ocean stratification on tidally induced multimodal internal waves and to show how they are generated by the subcritical ridge where only upward-propagating internal wave beams (IWBs) are present. The effects of the stratification on properties and characteristics of the excited IWBs and on the energy partition of the radiated mode-1 and mode-2 internal waves were investigated based on the model results. Higher modes of internal waves can also be effectively generated in the IWBs by the subcritical topography, and the contribution to IWBs from higher modes increases with the upper-ocean stratification. Mode-2 ISWs can be excited from the IWBs if both the tidal Froude number and the contribution to IWBs from mode-2 waves are sufficiently high (U0 is the tidal current speed, and c2 is the phase speed of mode-2 waves). In a moderately stratified upper ocean, both mode-1 and mode-2 ISWs can be produced, but for weak (strong) stratification, only mode-1 (mode-2) ISWs are generated. Further, it is found that the distance between two successive mode-1 or mode-2 ISW trains increases linearly with the upper-ocean stratification. The ratio of the kinetic energy to the available potential energy for the mode-2 ISWs increases with the upper-ocean stratification in a strongly stratified ocean.

scholarly journals Summertime increases in upper-ocean stratification and mixed-layer depth

Nature ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 591 (7851) ◽  
pp. 592-598
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Sallée ◽  
Violaine Pellichero ◽  
Camille Akhoudas ◽  
Etienne Pauthenet ◽  
Lucie Vignes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Layer ◽  
Mixed Layer Depth ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Layer Depth ◽  
Ocean Stratification

scholarly journals Surface signature of Mediterranean water eddies in the Northeastern Atlantic: effect of the upper ocean stratification

Ocean Science ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 931-943 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Bashmachnikov ◽  
X. Carton
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Relative Vorticity ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Buoyancy Frequency ◽  
Coriolis Parameter ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
Surface Signature ◽  
Mediterranean Water

Abstract. Meddies, intra-thermocline eddies of Mediterranean water, can often be detected at the sea surface as positive sea-level anomalies. Here we study the surface signature of several meddies tracked with RAFOS floats and AVISO altimetry. While pushing its way through the water column, a meddy raises isopycnals above. As a consequence of potential vorticity conservation, negative relative vorticity is generated in the upper layer. During the initial period of meddy acceleration after meddy formation or after a stagnation stage, a cyclonic signal is also generated at the sea-surface, but mostly the anticyclonic surface signal follows the meddy. Based on geostrophy and potential vorticity balance, we present theoretical estimates of the intensity of the surface signature. It appears to be proportional to the meddy core radius and to the Coriolis parameter, and inversely proportional to the core depth and buoyancy frequency. This indicates that surface signature of a meddy may be strongly reduced by the upper ocean stratification. Using climatic distribution of the stratification intensity, we claim that the southernmost limit for detection in altimetry of small meddies (with radii on the order of 10–15 km) should lie in the subtropics (35–45° N), while large meddies (with radii of 25–30 km) could be detected as far south as the northern tropics (25–35° N). Those results agree with observations.

scholarly journals Spatially Broad Observations of Internal Waves in the Upper Ocean at the Hawaiian Ridge

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1085-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Martin ◽  
Daniel L. Rudnick ◽  
Robert Pinkel
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Model ◽  
Energy Density ◽  
Potential Energy ◽  
Internal Waves ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
The South ◽  
South Side ◽  
Topographic Slope ◽  
Hawaiian Ridge

Abstract The density and current structure at the Hawaiian Ridge was observed using SeaSoar and Doppler sonar during a survey extending from Oahu to Brooks Banks. Across- and along-ridge changes in internal wave statistics in the upper ocean within 200 km of the ridge are investigated. Internal waves with trough-to-crest amplitude as large as 60 m and horizontal wavelength of about 50 km are observed repeatedly in across-ridge sections of potential density. Within 150 km of the ridge, kinetic and potential energy density exceed open-ocean values with maxima about 10 times Garrett–Munk levels. In the Kauai Channel (KC), the kinetic energy density is largest along an M2 internal tide ray. The ray originates at the northern edge of the ridge peak at a large across-ridge change in topographic slope and terminates at the ocean surface about 30–40 km south of the ridge peak. Kinetic and potential energy density are larger on the south side of the ridge at KC, the side with larger topographic slope. Energy density is also larger on the south side of the ridge at KC in numerical model results and on the side of steeper topographic slope in analytical model results. Along the ridge, the largest observed values of mean-square shear and mean-square slope of isopycnal depth are collocated with the largest energy density in numerical model results. Mean-square shear and mean-square slope increase with decreasing bottom depth and with increasing M2 barotropic tidal forcing.

scholarly journals Energetic Submesoscales Maintain Strong Mixed Layer Stratification during an Autumn Storm

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 2419-2427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Whitt ◽  
John R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Layer ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Ocean Mixed Layer ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Scale Turbulence

AbstractAtmospheric storms are an important driver of changes in upper-ocean stratification and small-scale (1–100 m) turbulence. Yet, the modifying effects of submesoscale (0.1–10 km) motions in the ocean mixed layer on stratification and small-scale turbulence during a storm are not well understood. Here, large-eddy simulations are used to study the coupled response of submesoscale and small-scale turbulence to the passage of an idealized autumn storm, with a wind stress representative of a storm observed in the North Atlantic above the Porcupine Abyssal Plain. Because of a relatively shallow mixed layer and a strong downfront wind, existing scaling theory predicts that submesoscales should be unable to restratify the mixed layer during the storm. In contrast, the simulations reveal a persistent and strong mean stratification in the mixed layer both during and after the storm. In addition, the mean dissipation rate remains elevated throughout the mixed layer during the storm, despite the strong mean stratification. These results are attributed to strong spatial variability in stratification and small-scale turbulence at the submesoscale and have important implications for sampling and modeling submesoscales and their effects on stratification and turbulence in the upper ocean.

scholarly journals Models for strongly-nonlinear evolution of long internal waves in a two-layer stratification

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Sakai ◽  
L. G. Redekopp
Keyword(s):  
Internal Waves ◽  
Nonlinear Evolution ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Exact Expression ◽  
Weakly Nonlinear ◽  
Strongly Nonlinear ◽  
Polynomial Fit ◽  
Nonlinear Relation ◽  
Nonlinear Extensions

Abstract. Models describing the evolution of long internal waves are proposed that are based on different polynomial approximations of the exact expression for the phase speed of uni-directional, fully-nonlinear, infinitely-long waves in the two-layer model of a density stratified environment. It is argued that a quartic KdV model, one that employs a cubic polynomial fit of the separately-derived, nonlinear relation for the phase speed, is capable of describing the evolution of strongly-nonlinear waves with a high degree of fidelity. The marginal gains obtained by generating higher-order, weakly-nonlinear extensions to describe strongly-nonlinear evolution are clearly demonstrated, and the limitations of the quite widely-used quadratic-cubic KdV evolution model obtained via a second-order, weakly-nonlinear analysis are assessed. Data are presented allowing a discriminating comparison of evolution characteristics as a function of wave amplitude and environmental parameters for several evolution models.

scholarly journals Upper ocean stratification and sea ice growth rates during the summer-fall transition, as revealed by Elephant seal foraging in the Adélie Depression, East Antarctica

Ocean Science ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Williams ◽  
M. Hindell ◽  
M.-N. Houssais ◽  
T. Tamura ◽  
I. C. Field
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Mixed Layer ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Shelf Break ◽  
Upper Ocean ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
Glacier Tongue ◽  
Ice Growth ◽  
Continental Shelf Break

Abstract. Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), fitted with Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sensors at Macquarie Island in January 2005 and 2010, collected unique oceanographic observations of the Adélie and George V Land continental shelf (140–148° E) during the summer-fall transition (late February through April). This is a key region of dense shelf water formation from enhanced sea ice growth/brine rejection in the local coastal polynyas. In 2005, two seals occupied the continental shelf break near the grounded icebergs at the northern end of the Mertz Glacier Tongue for several weeks from the end of February. One of the seals migrated west to the Dibble Ice Tongue, apparently utilising the Antarctic Slope Front current near the continental shelf break. In 2010, immediately after that year's calving of the Mertz Glacier Tongue, two seals migrated to the same region but penetrated much further southwest across the Adélie Depression and sampled the Commonwealth Bay polynya from March through April. Here we present observations of the regional oceanography during the summer-fall transition, in particular (i) the zonal distribution of modified Circumpolar Deep Water exchange across the shelf break, (ii) the upper ocean stratification across the Adélie Depression, including alongside iceberg C-28 that calved from the Mertz Glacier and (iii) the convective overturning of the deep remnant seasonal mixed layer in Commonwealth Bay from sea ice growth. Heat and freshwater budgets to 200–300 m are used to estimate the ocean heat content (400→50 MJ m−2), flux (50–200 W m−2 loss) and sea ice growth rates (maximum of 7.5–12.5 cm day−1). Mean seal-derived sea ice growth rates were within the range of satellite-derived estimates from 1992–2007 using ERA-Interim data. We speculate that the continuous foraging by the seals within Commonwealth Bay during the summer/fall transition was due to favorable feeding conditions resulting from the convective overturning of the deep seasonal mixed layer and chlorophyll maximum that is a reported feature of this location.

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