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Title: Reduced-Order Quasilinear Model of Ocean Boundary-Layer Turbulence

The combined effectiveness of model reduction and the quasilinear approximation for the reproduction of the low-order statistics of oceanic surface boundary layer turbulence is investigated. Idealized horizontally homogeneous problems of surface-forced thermal convection and Langmuir turbulence are studied in detail. Model reduction is achieved with a Galerkin projection of the governing equations onto a subset of modes determined by proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). When applied to boundary layers that are horizontally homogeneous, POD and a horizontally averaged quasilinear approximation both assume flow features that are horizontally wavelike, making the pairing very efficient. For less than 0.2% of the modes retained, the reduced quasilinear model is able to reproduce vertical profiles of horizontal mean fields as well as certain energetically important second-order turbulent transport statistics and energies to within 30% error. Reduced-basis quasilinear statistics must approach the full-basis statistics as the basis size approaches completion; however, some quasilinear statistics resemble those found in the fully nonlinear simulations at smaller basis truncations. Thus, model reduction could possibly improve upon the accuracy of quasilinear dynamics.

 
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PAR ID:
10135672
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
American Meteorological Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Physical Oceanography
Volume:
50
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0022-3670
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 537-558
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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