The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Motivated by recent observations of submesoscales in the Southern Ocean, we use nonlinear numerical simulations and a linear stability analysis to examine the influence of a barotropic jet on submesoscale instabilities at an isolated front....
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/286678 2024-01-14T10:10:52+01:00 The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet Stamper, MA Taylor, JR Fox-Kemper, B 2018 application/pdf https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286678 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.33985 eng eng American Meteorological Society http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jpo-d-18-0022.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286678 doi:10.17863/CAM.33985 Fronts Instability Nonhydrostatic models Article 2018 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.33985 2023-12-21T23:28:22Z <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Motivated by recent observations of submesoscales in the Southern Ocean, we use nonlinear numerical simulations and a linear stability analysis to examine the influence of a barotropic jet on submesoscale instabilities at an isolated front. Simulations of the nonhydrostatic Boussinesq equations with a strong barotropic jet (approximately matching the observed conditions) show that submesoscale disturbances and strong vertical velocities are confined to a small region near the initial frontal location. In contrast, without a barotropic jet, submesoscale eddies propagate to the edges of the computational domain and smear the mean frontal structure. Several intermediate jet strengths are also considered. A linear stability analysis reveals that the barotropic jet has a modest influence on the growth rate of linear disturbances to the initial conditions, with at most a ~20% reduction in the growth rate of the most unstable mode. On the other hand, a basic state formed by averaging the flow at the end of the simulation with a strong barotropic jet is linearly stable, suggesting that nonlinear processes modify the mean flow and stabilize the front.</jats:p> Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository Southern Ocean |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
Fronts Instability Nonhydrostatic models |
spellingShingle |
Fronts Instability Nonhydrostatic models Stamper, MA Taylor, JR Fox-Kemper, B The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
topic_facet |
Fronts Instability Nonhydrostatic models |
description |
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Motivated by recent observations of submesoscales in the Southern Ocean, we use nonlinear numerical simulations and a linear stability analysis to examine the influence of a barotropic jet on submesoscale instabilities at an isolated front. Simulations of the nonhydrostatic Boussinesq equations with a strong barotropic jet (approximately matching the observed conditions) show that submesoscale disturbances and strong vertical velocities are confined to a small region near the initial frontal location. In contrast, without a barotropic jet, submesoscale eddies propagate to the edges of the computational domain and smear the mean frontal structure. Several intermediate jet strengths are also considered. A linear stability analysis reveals that the barotropic jet has a modest influence on the growth rate of linear disturbances to the initial conditions, with at most a ~20% reduction in the growth rate of the most unstable mode. On the other hand, a basic state formed by averaging the flow at the end of the simulation with a strong barotropic jet is linearly stable, suggesting that nonlinear processes modify the mean flow and stabilize the front.</jats:p> |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stamper, MA Taylor, JR Fox-Kemper, B |
author_facet |
Stamper, MA Taylor, JR Fox-Kemper, B |
author_sort |
Stamper, MA |
title |
The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
title_short |
The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
title_full |
The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
title_fullStr |
The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
title_full_unstemmed |
The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
title_sort |
growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286678 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.33985 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286678 doi:10.17863/CAM.33985 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.33985 |
_version_ |
1788065715073318912 |