Energy Transfers between Multidecadal and Turbulent Variability

Abstract

Abstract One of the proposed mechanisms to explain the multidecadal variability observed in sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean consists of a large-scale low-frequency internal mode spontaneously developing because of the large-scale baroclinic instability of the time-mean circulation. Even though this mode has been extensively studied in terms of the buoyancy variance budget, its energetic properties remain poorly known. Here we perform the full mechanical energy budget including available potential energy (APE) and kinetic energy (KE) of this internal mode and decompose the budget into three frequency bands: mean, low frequency (LF) associated with the large-scale mode, and high frequency (HF) associated with mesoscale eddy turbulence. This decomposition allows us to diagnose the energy fluxes between the different reservoirs and to understand the sources and sinks. Because of the large scale of the mode, most of its energy is contained in the APE. In our configuration, the only source of LF APE is the transfer from mean APE to LF APE that is attributed to the large-scale baroclinic instability. In return the sinks of LF APE are the parameterized diffusion, the flux toward HF APE, and, to a much lesser extent, the flux toward LF KE. The presence of an additional wind stress component weakens multidecadal oscillations and modifies the energy fluxes between the different energy reservoirs. The KE transfer appears to only have a minor influence on the multidecadal mode relative to the other energy sources involving APE, in all experiments. These results highlight the utility of the full APE–KE budget.