The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer
The ocean surface boundary layer is a critical interface across which momentum, heat, and trace gases are exchanged between the oceans and atmosphere. Surface processes (winds, waves, and buoyancy forcing) are known to contribute significantly to fluxes within this layer. Recently, studies have sugg...
Published in: | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
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American Geophysical Union
2019
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:526290 2023-05-15T17:34:47+02:00 The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer Buckingham, Christian E. Lucas, Natasha S. Belcher, Stephen E. Rippeth, Tom P. Grant, Alan L. M. Le Sommer, Julien Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. 2019-12 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/1/Buckingham_et_al-2019-Journal_of_Advances_in_Modeling_Earth_Systems.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 en eng American Geophysical Union https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/1/Buckingham_et_al-2019-Journal_of_Advances_in_Modeling_Earth_Systems.pdf Buckingham, Christian E. orcid:0000-0001-9355-9038 Lucas, Natasha S.; Belcher, Stephen E.; Rippeth, Tom P.; Grant, Alan L. M.; Le Sommer, Julien; Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. 2019 The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11 (12). 4066-4094. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 2023-02-04T19:49:55Z The ocean surface boundary layer is a critical interface across which momentum, heat, and trace gases are exchanged between the oceans and atmosphere. Surface processes (winds, waves, and buoyancy forcing) are known to contribute significantly to fluxes within this layer. Recently, studies have suggested that submesoscale processes, which occur at small scales (0.1-10 km, hours to days) and therefore are not yet represented in most ocean models, may play critical roles in these turbulent exchanges. While observational support for such phenomena has been demonstrated in the vicinity of strong current systems and littoral regions, relatively few observations exist in the open-ocean environment to warrant representation in Earth system models. We use novel observations and simulations to quantify the contributions of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation in the open-ocean surface boundary layer. Our observations are derived from moorings in the North Atlantic, December 2012 to April 2013, and are complemented by atmospheric reanalysis. We develop a conceptual framework for dissipation rates due to surface and submesoscale processes. Using this framework and comparing with observed dissipation rates, we find that surface processes dominate TKE dissipation. A parameterization for symmetric instability is consistent with this result. We next employ simulations from an ocean front-resolving model to reestablish that dissipation due to surface processes exceeds that of submesoscale processes by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Together, these results suggest submesoscale processes do not dramatically modify vertical TKE budgets, though such dynamics may be climatically important owing to their ability to remove energy from the ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 11 12 4066 4094 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The ocean surface boundary layer is a critical interface across which momentum, heat, and trace gases are exchanged between the oceans and atmosphere. Surface processes (winds, waves, and buoyancy forcing) are known to contribute significantly to fluxes within this layer. Recently, studies have suggested that submesoscale processes, which occur at small scales (0.1-10 km, hours to days) and therefore are not yet represented in most ocean models, may play critical roles in these turbulent exchanges. While observational support for such phenomena has been demonstrated in the vicinity of strong current systems and littoral regions, relatively few observations exist in the open-ocean environment to warrant representation in Earth system models. We use novel observations and simulations to quantify the contributions of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation in the open-ocean surface boundary layer. Our observations are derived from moorings in the North Atlantic, December 2012 to April 2013, and are complemented by atmospheric reanalysis. We develop a conceptual framework for dissipation rates due to surface and submesoscale processes. Using this framework and comparing with observed dissipation rates, we find that surface processes dominate TKE dissipation. A parameterization for symmetric instability is consistent with this result. We next employ simulations from an ocean front-resolving model to reestablish that dissipation due to surface processes exceeds that of submesoscale processes by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Together, these results suggest submesoscale processes do not dramatically modify vertical TKE budgets, though such dynamics may be climatically important owing to their ability to remove energy from the ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Buckingham, Christian E. Lucas, Natasha S. Belcher, Stephen E. Rippeth, Tom P. Grant, Alan L. M. Le Sommer, Julien Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. |
spellingShingle |
Buckingham, Christian E. Lucas, Natasha S. Belcher, Stephen E. Rippeth, Tom P. Grant, Alan L. M. Le Sommer, Julien Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
author_facet |
Buckingham, Christian E. Lucas, Natasha S. Belcher, Stephen E. Rippeth, Tom P. Grant, Alan L. M. Le Sommer, Julien Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. |
author_sort |
Buckingham, Christian E. |
title |
The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
title_short |
The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
title_full |
The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
title_fullStr |
The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
title_full_unstemmed |
The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
title_sort |
contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/1/Buckingham_et_al-2019-Journal_of_Advances_in_Modeling_Earth_Systems.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526290/1/Buckingham_et_al-2019-Journal_of_Advances_in_Modeling_Earth_Systems.pdf Buckingham, Christian E. orcid:0000-0001-9355-9038 Lucas, Natasha S.; Belcher, Stephen E.; Rippeth, Tom P.; Grant, Alan L. M.; Le Sommer, Julien; Ajayi, Adekunle Opeoluwa; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. 2019 The contribution of surface and submesoscale processes to turbulence in the open ocean surface boundary layer. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11 (12). 4066-4094. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001801 |
container_title |
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
4066 |
op_container_end_page |
4094 |
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1766133725147430912 |