423 research outputs found
Asymptotic regimes in mixed-layer deepening
The model equation for the mixed layer proposed by Niiler (1975) combines the Kraus-Turner turbulent erosion prescription with the Pollard-Rhines-Thompson treatment of induced shear-flow deepening and limiting by Coriolis forces. We show here that both are special cases which emerge asymptotically from the model equation. Numerical solutions show the dynamics to pass through four distinct regimes, in the case of wind-mixing of an initially resting fluid
Statistical observations of the trajectories of neutrally buoyant floats in the North Atlantic
This is a report of the statistical behavior of neutrally buoyant SOFAR floats, drifting at 1500 m depth in the Sargasso Sea where the currents are dominantly time-dependent. The float level is fairly typical of the deep ocean below the main thermocline...
Coherent Multidecadal Atmospheric and Oceanic Variability in the North Atlantic: Blocking Corresponds with Warm Subpolar Ocean
Winters with frequent atmospheric blocking, in a band of latitudes from Greenland to Western Europe, are found to persist over several decades and correspond to a warm North Atlantic Ocean. This is evident in atmospheric reanalysis data, both modern and for the full 20th century. Blocking is approximately in phase with Atlantic multidecadal ocean variability (AMV). Wintertime atmospheric blocking involves a highly distorted jetstream, isolating large regions of air from the westerly circulation. It influences the ocean through windstress-curl and associated air/sea heat flux. While blocking is a relatively high-frequency phenomenon, it is strongly modulated over decadal timescales. The blocked regime (weaker ocean gyres, weaker air-sea heat flux, paradoxically increased transport of warm subtropical waters poleward) contributes to the warm phase of AMV. Atmospheric blocking better describes the early 20thC warming and 1996-2010 warm period than does the NAO index. It has roots in the hemispheric circulation and jet stream dynamics. Subpolar Atlantic variability covaries with distant AMOC fields: both these connections may express the global influence of the subpolar North Atlantic ocean on the global climate system
Spreading of Denmark Strait overflow water in the western subpolar North Atlantic : insights from eddy-resolving simulations with a passive tracer
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 45 (2015): 2913–2932, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0179.1.The oceanic deep circulation is shared between concentrated deep western boundary currents (DWBCs) and broader interior pathways, a process that is sensitive to seafloor topography. This study investigates the spreading and deepening of Denmark Strait overflow water (DSOW) in the western subpolar North Atlantic using two ° eddy-resolving Atlantic simulations, including a passive tracer injected into the DSOW. The deepest layers of DSOW transit from a narrow DWBC in the southern Irminger Sea into widespread westward flow across the central Labrador Sea, which remerges along the Labrador coast. This abyssal circulation, in contrast to the upper levels of overflow water that remain as a boundary current, blankets the deep Labrador Sea with DSOW. Farther downstream after being steered around the abrupt topography of Orphan Knoll, DSOW again leaves the boundary, forming cyclonic recirculation cells in the deep Newfoundland basin. The deep recirculation, mostly driven by the meandering pathway of the upper North Atlantic Current, leads to accumulation of tracer offshore of Orphan Knoll, precisely where a local maximum of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) inventory is observed. At Flemish Cap, eddy fluxes carry ~20% of the tracer transport from the boundary current into the interior. Potential vorticity is conserved as the flow of DSOW broadens at the transition from steep to less steep continental rise into the Labrador Sea, while around the abrupt topography of Orphan Knoll, potential vorticity is not conserved and the DSOW deepens significantly.This work is supported by ONR Award N00014-09-1-0587, the NSF Physical Oceanography Program, and NASA Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Program.2016-06-0
Linking The Atlantic Gyres: Warm, Saline Intrusions From Subtropical Atlantic to the Nordic Seas
Ocean state estimates from SODA assimilation are analyzed to understand how major shifts in the North Atlantic Current path relate to AMOC, and how these shifts are related to large scale ocean circulation and surface forcing. These complement surface-drifter and altimetry data showing the same events. SODA data indicate that the warm water limb of AMOC, reaching to at least 600m depth, expanded in density/salinity space greatly after 1995, and that Similar events occurred in the late 1960s and around 1980. While there were large changes in the upper limb, there was no immediate response in the dense return flow, at least not in SODA, however one would expect a delayed response of increasing AMOC due to the positive feedback from increased salt transport. These upper limb changes are winddriven, involving changes in the eastern subpolar gyre, visible in the subduction of low potential vorticity waters. The subtropical gyre has been weak during the times of the northward intrusions of the highly saline subtropical waters, while the NAO index has been neutral or in a negative phase. The image of subtropical/subpolar gyre exchange through teleconnections within the AMOC overturning cell will be described
Echoes in classical dynamical systems
Echoes arise when external manipulations to a system induce a reversal of its
time evolution that leads to a more or less perfect recovery of the initial
state. We discuss the accuracy with which a cloud of trajectories returns to
the initial state in classical dynamical systems that are exposed to additive
noise and small differences in the equations of motion for forward and backward
evolution. The cases of integrable and chaotic motion and small or large noise
are studied in some detail and many different dynamical laws are identified.
Experimental tests in 2-d flows that show chaotic advection are proposed.Comment: to be published in J. Phys.
Dispersive stabilization of the inverse cascade for the Kolmogorov flow
It is shown by perturbation techniques and numerical simulations that the
inverse cascade of kink-antikink annihilations, characteristic of the
Kolmogorov flow in the slightly supercritical Reynolds number regime, is halted
by the dispersive action of Rossby waves in the beta-plane approximation. For
beta tending to zero, the largest excited scale is proportional to the
logarithm of one over beta and differs strongly from what is predicted by
standard dimensional phenomenology which ignores depletion of nonlinearity.Comment: 4 pages, LATEX, 3 figures. v3: revised version with minor correction
Atmospheric Circulation and Tides of "51Peg b-like" Planets
We examine the properties of the atmospheres of extrasolar giant planets at
orbital distances smaller than 0.1 AU from their stars. We show that these
``51Peg b-like'' planets are rapidly synchronized by tidal interactions, but
that small departures from synchronous rotation can occur because of
fluid-dynamical torques within these planets. Previous radiative-transfer and
evolution models of such planets assume a homogeneous atmosphere. Nevertheless,
we show using simple arguments that, at the photosphere, the day-night
temperature difference and characteristic wind speeds may reach ~500 K and ~2
km/s, respectively. Substantial departures from chemical equilibrium are
expected. The cloud coverage depends sensitively on the dynamics; clouds could
exist predominantly either on the dayside or nightside, depending on the
circulation regime. Radiative-transfer models that assume homogeneous
conditions are therefore inadequate in describing the atmospheric properties of
51Peg b-like planets. We present preliminary three-dimensional, nonlinear
simulations of the atmospheric circulation of HD209458b that indicate plausible
patterns for the circulation and generally agree with our simpler estimates.
Furthermore, we show that kinetic energy production in the atmosphere can lead
to the deposition of substantial energy in the interior, with crucial
consequences for the evolution of these planets. Future measurements of
reflected and thermally-emitted radiation from these planets will help test our
ideas.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. A&A, in press. Also available at
http://www.obs-nice.fr/guillot/pegasi-planets
Generation and Structure of Solitary Rossby Vortices in Rotating Fluids
The formation of zonal flows and vortices in the generalized
Charney-Hasegawa-Mima equation is studied. We focus on the regime when the size
of structures is comparable to or larger than the deformation (Rossby) radius.
Numerical simulations show the formation of anticyclonic vortices in unstable
shear flows and ring-like vortices with quiescent cores and vorticity
concentrated in a ring. Physical mechanisms that lead to these phenomena and
their relevance to turbulence in planetary atmospheres are discussed.Comment: 3 pages in REVTeX, 5 postscript figures separately, submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Recent Developments in Understanding Two-dimensional Turbulence and the Nastrom-Gage Spectrum
Two-dimensional turbulence appears to be a more formidable problem than
three-dimensional turbulence despite the numerical advantage of working with
one less dimension. In the present paper we review recent numerical
investigations of the phenomenology of two-dimensional turbulence as well as
recent theoretical breakthroughs by various leading researchers. We also review
efforts to reconcile the observed energy spectrum of the atmosphere (the
spectrum) with the predictions of two-dimensional turbulence and
quasi-geostrophic turbulence.Comment: Invited review; accepted by J. Low Temp. Phys.; Proceedings for
Warwick Turbulence Symposium Workshop on Universal features in turbulence:
from quantum to cosmological scales, 200
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