Understanding Energy Pathways in the Gulf Stream

Author:

Contreras Marcela1ORCID,Renault Lionel1,Marchesiello Patrick1

Affiliation:

1. a LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, CNES-CNRS-IRD-UPS, Toulouse, France

Abstract

Abstract The Gulf Stream (GS) is one of the strongest ocean currents on the planet. Eddy-rich resolution models are needed to properly represent the dynamics of the GS; however, kinetic energy (KE) can be in excess in these models if not dissipated efficiently. The question of how and how much energy is dissipated and in particular how it flows through ocean scales thus remains an important and largely unanswered question. Using a high-resolution (∼2 km) ocean model [Coastal and Regional Ocean Community (CROCO)], we characterize the spatial and temporal distribution of turbulent cascades in the GS based on a coarse-grained method. We show that the balanced flow is associated with an inverse cascade while the forward cascade is explained by ageostrophic advection associated with frontogenesis. Downscale fluxes are dominant at scales smaller than about 20 km near the surface and most intense at the GS North Wall. There is also strong seasonal variability in KE flux, with the forward cascade intensifying in winter and the inverse cascade later in spring. The forward cascade, which represents an interior route to dissipation, is compared with both numerical and boundary dissipation processes. The contribution of interior dissipation is an order of magnitude smaller than that of the other energy sinks. We thus evaluate the sensitivity of horizontal momentum advection schemes on energy dissipation and show that the decrease in numerical dissipation in a high-order scheme leads to an increase in dissipation at the boundaries, not in the downscale flux.

Funder

Becas Chile

Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales

LEFE VENUS

ANR-EUREC4A-OA

Publisher

American Meteorological Society

Subject

Oceanography

Reference83 articles.

1. Mapping the energy cascade in the North Atlantic Ocean: The coarse-graining approach;Aluie, H.,2018

2. On eddy viscosity, energy cascades, and the horizontal resolution of gridded satellite altimeter products;Arbic, B. K.,2013

3. Energy cascades and loss of balance in a reentrant channel forced by wind stress and buoyancy fluxes;Barkan, R.,2015

4. Mixed layer instabilities and restratification;Boccaletti, G.,2007

5. Bourassa, M. A., E. Rodriguez, and D. Chelton, 2016: Winds and currents mission: Ability to observe mesoscale air/sea coupling. 2016 IEEE Int. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symp., Beijing, China, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 7392–7395, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2016.7730928.

Cited by 7 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3