Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean
The transition scale Lt from balanced geostrophic motions to unbalanced wave motions, including near-inertial flows, internal tides and inertia-gravity wave continuum, is explored using the output from a global 1/48° horizontal resolution MITgcm simulation. Defined as the wavelength with equal balan...
Published in: | Journal of Physical Oceanography |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Amer Meteorological Soc
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/54318.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/ |
id |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:53431 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:53431 2023-05-15T13:50:50+02:00 Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean Qiu, Bo Chen, Shuiming Klein, Patrice Wang, Jinbo Torres, Hector Fu, Lee-lueng Menemenlis, Dimitris 2018-03 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/54318.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/ eng eng Amer Meteorological Soc https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/54318.pdf doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/ 2018 American Meteorological Society info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Journal Of Physical Oceanography (0022-3670) (Amer Meteorological Soc), 2018-03 , Vol. 48 , N. 3 , P. 591-605 text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2018 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 2021-09-23T20:30:33Z The transition scale Lt from balanced geostrophic motions to unbalanced wave motions, including near-inertial flows, internal tides and inertia-gravity wave continuum, is explored using the output from a global 1/48° horizontal resolution MITgcm simulation. Defined as the wavelength with equal balanced and unbalanced motion kinetic energy (KE) spectral density, Lt is detected to be geographically highly inhomogeneous: it falls below 40 km in the western boundary current and Antarctic Circumpolar Current regions, increases to 40- 100 km in the interior subtropical and subpolar gyres, and exceeds, in general, 200 km in the tropical oceans. With the exception of the Pacific and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean, the seasonal KE uctuations of the surface balanced and unbalanced motions are out-of phase due to occurrence of mixed layer instability in winter and trapping of unbalanced motion KE in shallow mixed layer in summer. The combined effect of these seasonal changes renders Lt to be < 20 km during winter in 80% of the Northern Hemisphere oceans between 25°-45°N and all of the Southern-Hemisphere oceans south of 25°S. The transition scale’s geographical and seasonal changes are highly relevant to the forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. To improve the detection of balanced submesoscale signals from SWOT, especially in the tropical oceans, efforts to remove stationary internal tidal signals are called for. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Southern Ocean Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Antarctic Indian Pacific Southern Ocean Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 3 591 605 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
description |
The transition scale Lt from balanced geostrophic motions to unbalanced wave motions, including near-inertial flows, internal tides and inertia-gravity wave continuum, is explored using the output from a global 1/48° horizontal resolution MITgcm simulation. Defined as the wavelength with equal balanced and unbalanced motion kinetic energy (KE) spectral density, Lt is detected to be geographically highly inhomogeneous: it falls below 40 km in the western boundary current and Antarctic Circumpolar Current regions, increases to 40- 100 km in the interior subtropical and subpolar gyres, and exceeds, in general, 200 km in the tropical oceans. With the exception of the Pacific and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean, the seasonal KE uctuations of the surface balanced and unbalanced motions are out-of phase due to occurrence of mixed layer instability in winter and trapping of unbalanced motion KE in shallow mixed layer in summer. The combined effect of these seasonal changes renders Lt to be < 20 km during winter in 80% of the Northern Hemisphere oceans between 25°-45°N and all of the Southern-Hemisphere oceans south of 25°S. The transition scale’s geographical and seasonal changes are highly relevant to the forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. To improve the detection of balanced submesoscale signals from SWOT, especially in the tropical oceans, efforts to remove stationary internal tidal signals are called for. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Qiu, Bo Chen, Shuiming Klein, Patrice Wang, Jinbo Torres, Hector Fu, Lee-lueng Menemenlis, Dimitris |
spellingShingle |
Qiu, Bo Chen, Shuiming Klein, Patrice Wang, Jinbo Torres, Hector Fu, Lee-lueng Menemenlis, Dimitris Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
author_facet |
Qiu, Bo Chen, Shuiming Klein, Patrice Wang, Jinbo Torres, Hector Fu, Lee-lueng Menemenlis, Dimitris |
author_sort |
Qiu, Bo |
title |
Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
title_short |
Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
title_full |
Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonality in Transition Scale from Balanced to Unbalanced Motions in the World Ocean |
title_sort |
seasonality in transition scale from balanced to unbalanced motions in the world ocean |
publisher |
Amer Meteorological Soc |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/54318.pdf https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/ |
geographic |
Antarctic Indian Pacific Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Indian Pacific Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Journal Of Physical Oceanography (0022-3670) (Amer Meteorological Soc), 2018-03 , Vol. 48 , N. 3 , P. 591-605 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/54318.pdf doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00423/53431/ |
op_rights |
2018 American Meteorological Society info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0169.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
48 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
591 |
op_container_end_page |
605 |
_version_ |
1766254164926529536 |