Observational estimates of turbulent mixing in the southeast Indian Ocean

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigates the spatio-temporal variability of turbulent mixing in the eastern South Indian Ocean using a collection of data from EM-APEX profiling floats, shipboard CTD and microstructure profilers. The floats collected 1566 profiles of temperature, salinity and horizontal velocity data down to 1200 m over a period of about four months. A fine-scale parameterization is applied to the float and CTD data to estimate turbulent mixing. Elevated mixing is observed in the upper ocean, over bottom topography and in mesoscale eddies. Mixing is enhanced in the anticyclonic eddies due to trapped near-inertial waves within the eddy. We found that cyclonic eddies contribute to turbulent mixing in the depth range of 500 – 1000 m, which is associated with downward propagating internal waves. The mean diapycnal diffusivity over 250 – 500 m depth is O(10−6) m2 s−1 and it increases to O(10−5) m2 s−1 in 500 – 1000 m in cyclonic eddies. The turbulent mixing in this region has implications for watermass transformation and large-scale circulation. Higher diffusivity (O(10−5) m2 s−1) is observed in the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) layer in cyclonic eddies whereas weak diffusivity is observed in the Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) layer (O(10−6) m2 s−1). Counter-intuitively, then, the SAMW watermass properties are strongly affected in cyclonic eddies whereas the AAIW layer is less affected. Comparatively high diffusivity at the location of the South Indian Countercurrent (SICC) jets suggests there are wave-mean flow interactions in addition to the wave-eddy interactions that warrant further investigation.