Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic
This study examines spreading of surface drifter pairs deployed as part of the CLIVAR Mode Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE) project in the Gulf Stream region. The spreading is resolved at hourly resolution and quantified by relative dispersion and finite-scale Lyapunov exponents. At scales from 1-...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:13623 2023-05-15T17:29:54+02:00 Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic Lumpkin, Rick Elipot, Shane 2010-12-07 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/1/Lumpkin_2010.pdf http://www.agu.org/journals/ABS/2010/2010JC006338.shtml en eng https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/1/Lumpkin_2010.pdf Lumpkin, Rick; Elipot, Shane. 2010 Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, C12017. 20, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2010 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338 2023-02-04T19:28:43Z This study examines spreading of surface drifter pairs deployed as part of the CLIVAR Mode Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE) project in the Gulf Stream region. The spreading is resolved at hourly resolution and quantified by relative dispersion and finite-scale Lyapunov exponents. At scales from 1-3 km to 300-500 km, the dispersion follows Richardson's law, indicating stirring by eddies comparable in scale to the pair separation distance. At larger scales, the spreading becomes a random walk described by a constant diffusivity. The behavior from 1-3 km to the local deformation radius is inconsistent with the enstrophy cascade of 2-D quasigeostrophic turbulence. To test various hypotheses for this result, drifter pair spreading is examined for pairs that were not launched together, pairs deployed in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic, and CLIMODE pairs subsampled to daily temporal resolution. Our results indicate the presence of significant energy at the submesoscale in the Gulf Stream region which flattens the wave number spectrum and dominates surface stirring at this scale range. Results in the less energetic subtropical eastern Atlantic are more equivocal Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Journal of Geophysical Research 115 C12 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
This study examines spreading of surface drifter pairs deployed as part of the CLIVAR Mode Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE) project in the Gulf Stream region. The spreading is resolved at hourly resolution and quantified by relative dispersion and finite-scale Lyapunov exponents. At scales from 1-3 km to 300-500 km, the dispersion follows Richardson's law, indicating stirring by eddies comparable in scale to the pair separation distance. At larger scales, the spreading becomes a random walk described by a constant diffusivity. The behavior from 1-3 km to the local deformation radius is inconsistent with the enstrophy cascade of 2-D quasigeostrophic turbulence. To test various hypotheses for this result, drifter pair spreading is examined for pairs that were not launched together, pairs deployed in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic, and CLIMODE pairs subsampled to daily temporal resolution. Our results indicate the presence of significant energy at the submesoscale in the Gulf Stream region which flattens the wave number spectrum and dominates surface stirring at this scale range. Results in the less energetic subtropical eastern Atlantic are more equivocal |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lumpkin, Rick Elipot, Shane |
spellingShingle |
Lumpkin, Rick Elipot, Shane Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
author_facet |
Lumpkin, Rick Elipot, Shane |
author_sort |
Lumpkin, Rick |
title |
Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
title_short |
Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
title_full |
Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic |
title_sort |
surface drifter pair spreading in the north atlantic |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/1/Lumpkin_2010.pdf http://www.agu.org/journals/ABS/2010/2010JC006338.shtml |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/13623/1/Lumpkin_2010.pdf Lumpkin, Rick; Elipot, Shane. 2010 Surface drifter pair spreading in the North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, C12017. 20, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006338 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research |
container_volume |
115 |
container_issue |
C12 |
_version_ |
1766125144669945856 |