Variations in Ocean Mixing from Seconds to Years

Abstract

Over the past several decades, there has developed a community-wide appreciation for the importance of mixing at the smallest scales to geophysical fluid dynamics on all scales. This appreciation has spawned greater participation in the investigation of ocean mixing and new ways to measure it. These are welcome developments given the tremendous separation in scales between the basins, [Formula: see text]) m, and the turbulence, [Formula: see text]) m, and the fact that turbulence that leads to thermodynamically irreversible mixing in high-Reynolds-number geophysical flows varies by at least eight orders of magnitude in both space and time. In many cases, it is difficult to separate the dependencies because measurements are sparse, also in both space and time. Comprehensive shipboard turbulence profiling experiments supplemented by Doppler sonar current measurements provide detailed observations of the evolution of the vertical structure of upper-ocean turbulence on timescales of minutes to weeks. Recent technical developments now permit measurements of turbulence in the ocean, at least at a few locations, for extended periods. This review summarizes recent and classic results in the context of our expanding knowledge of the temporal variability of ocean mixing, beginning with a discussion of the timescales of the turbulence itself (seconds to minutes) and how turbulence-enhanced mixing varies over hours, days, tidal cycles, monsoons, seasons, and El Niño–Southern Oscillation timescales (years).