Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts
Recent studies demonstrate that energetic sub-mesoscale fronts (10–50 km width) extend in the ocean interior, driving large vertical velocities and associated fluxes. However, diagnosing the dynamics of these deep-reaching fronts from in situ observations remains challenging because of the lack of...
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:pdq6y-rg516 2024-06-23T07:47:33+00:00 Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Menemenlis, Dimitris 2020-08-28 https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 unknown MDPI AG https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:pdq6y-rg516 eprintid:105177 resolverid:CaltechAUTHORS:20200831-140539145 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Other Fluids, 5(3), Art. No. 145, (2020-08-28) altimetry finite-size Lyapunov exponent ocean dynamics sub-mesoscale info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2020 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 2024-06-12T05:59:24Z Recent studies demonstrate that energetic sub-mesoscale fronts (10–50 km width) extend in the ocean interior, driving large vertical velocities and associated fluxes. However, diagnosing the dynamics of these deep-reaching fronts from in situ observations remains challenging because of the lack of information on the 3-D structure of the horizontal velocity. Here, a realistic numerical simulation in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is used to study the dynamics of submesocale fronts in relation to velocity gradients, responsible for the formation of these fronts. Results highlight that the stirring properties of the flow at depth, which are related to the velocity gradients, can be inferred from finite-size Lyapunov exponent (FSLE) at the surface. Satellite altimetry observations of FSLE and velocity gradients are then used in combination with recent in situ observations collected by an elephant seal in the ACC to reconstruct frontal dynamics and their associated vertical velocities down to 500 m. The approach proposed here is well suited for the analysis of sub-mesoscale-resolving datasets and the design of future sub-mesoscale field campaigns. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received: 10 August 2020; Accepted: 25 August 2020; Published: 28 August 2020. High-end computing resources for the numerical simulation were provided by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at the Ames Research Center. Thanks to Christopher Henze at NASA Ames Hyperwall and MITgcm developers and NAS scientists that made available the model outputs. This work was supported by the CNES-TOSCA project Elephant seals as Oceanographic Samplers of sub-mesoscale features led by C. Guinet with support of the French Polar Institute (Programs 109 and 1201). Thanks to Fabien Roquet and Baptiste Picard that made available the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic Fluids 5 3 145 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftcaltechauth |
language |
unknown |
topic |
altimetry finite-size Lyapunov exponent ocean dynamics sub-mesoscale |
spellingShingle |
altimetry finite-size Lyapunov exponent ocean dynamics sub-mesoscale Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Menemenlis, Dimitris Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
topic_facet |
altimetry finite-size Lyapunov exponent ocean dynamics sub-mesoscale |
description |
Recent studies demonstrate that energetic sub-mesoscale fronts (10–50 km width) extend in the ocean interior, driving large vertical velocities and associated fluxes. However, diagnosing the dynamics of these deep-reaching fronts from in situ observations remains challenging because of the lack of information on the 3-D structure of the horizontal velocity. Here, a realistic numerical simulation in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is used to study the dynamics of submesocale fronts in relation to velocity gradients, responsible for the formation of these fronts. Results highlight that the stirring properties of the flow at depth, which are related to the velocity gradients, can be inferred from finite-size Lyapunov exponent (FSLE) at the surface. Satellite altimetry observations of FSLE and velocity gradients are then used in combination with recent in situ observations collected by an elephant seal in the ACC to reconstruct frontal dynamics and their associated vertical velocities down to 500 m. The approach proposed here is well suited for the analysis of sub-mesoscale-resolving datasets and the design of future sub-mesoscale field campaigns. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received: 10 August 2020; Accepted: 25 August 2020; Published: 28 August 2020. High-end computing resources for the numerical simulation were provided by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at the Ames Research Center. Thanks to Christopher Henze at NASA Ames Hyperwall and MITgcm developers and NAS scientists that made available the model outputs. This work was supported by the CNES-TOSCA project Elephant seals as Oceanographic Samplers of sub-mesoscale features led by C. Guinet with support of the French Polar Institute (Programs 109 and 1201). Thanks to Fabien Roquet and Baptiste Picard that made available the ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Menemenlis, Dimitris |
author_facet |
Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Menemenlis, Dimitris |
author_sort |
Siegelman, Lia |
title |
Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
title_short |
Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
title_full |
Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
title_fullStr |
Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
title_full_unstemmed |
Altimetry-Based Diagnosis of Deep-Reaching Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Fronts |
title_sort |
altimetry-based diagnosis of deep-reaching sub-mesoscale ocean fronts |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Fluids, 5(3), Art. No. 145, (2020-08-28) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:pdq6y-rg516 eprintid:105177 resolverid:CaltechAUTHORS:20200831-140539145 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5030145 |
container_title |
Fluids |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
145 |
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1802651679264342016 |