Oceanic Mesoscale Eddy Depletion Catalyzed by Internal Waves
Abstract
The processes leading to the depletion of oceanic mesoscale kinetic energy (KE) and the energization of near‐inertial internal waves are investigated using a suite of realistically forced regional ocean simulations. By carefully modifying the forcing fields we show that solutions where internal waves are forced have ∼ less mesoscale KE compared with solutions where they are not. We apply a coarse‐graining method to quantify the KE fluxes across time scales and demonstrate that the decrease in mesoscale KE is associated with an internal wave‐induced reduction of the inverse energy cascade and an enhancement of the forward energy cascade from sub‐to super‐inertial frequencies. The integrated KE forward transfer rate in the upper ocean is equivalent to half and a quarter of the regionally averaged near‐inertial wind work in winter and summer, respectively, with the strongest fluxes localized at surface submesoscale fronts and filaments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 22, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2021gl094376
Entities
People
- Clément Vic
- James C. McWilliams
- Jonathan Gula
- Kaushik Srinivasan
- Luwei Yang
- Roy Barkan
Organizations
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Institut Universitaire de France
- Israel Science Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- Tel Aviv University
- University of Western Brittany