Reduction of Near-Inertial energy through the dependence of wind stress on the Ocean-Surface velocity
A realistic primitive-equation model of the Southern Ocean at eddying spatial resolution is used to examine the effect of ocean-surface-velocity dependence of the wind stress on the strength of near-inertial oscillations. Accounting for the ocean-surface-velocity dependence of the wind stress leads...
| Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AGU (American Geophysical Union)
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/21143/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/21143/1/Rath_et_al_2013_JGR_Oceans.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/21143/7/rath_greatbatch_zhai13.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20198 |
| Summary: | A realistic primitive-equation model of the Southern Ocean at eddying spatial resolution is used to examine the effect of ocean-surface-velocity dependence of the wind stress on the strength of near-inertial oscillations. Accounting for the ocean-surface-velocity dependence of the wind stress leads to a large reduction of wind-induced near-inertial energy of approximately 40 percent and of wind power input into the near-inertial frequency band of approximately 20 percent. A large part of this reduction can be explained by the leading-order modification to the wind stress if the ocean-surface velocity is included. The strength of the reduction is shown to be modulated by the inverse of the ocean-surface-mixed-layer depth. We conclude that the effect of surface-velocity dependence of the wind stress should be taken into account when estimating the wind-power input into the near-inertial frequency band and when estimating near-inertial energy levels in the ocean due to wind forcing. |
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