More Like this

1. Diffusive Staircases in Shear: Dynamics and Heat Transport

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0193.1  

   Brown, Justin M.; Radko, Timour (March 2021, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Arctic staircases mediate the heat transport from the warm water of Atlantic origin to the cooler waters of the Arctic mixed layer. For this reason, staircases have received much due attention from the community, and their heat transport has been well characterized for systems in the absence of external forcing. However, the ocean is a dynamic environment with large-scale currents and internal waves being omnipresent, even in regions shielded by sea-ice. Thus, we have attempted to address the effects of background shear on fully developed staircases using numerical simulations. The code, which is pseudo-spectral, evolves the governing equations for a Boussinesq fluid with temperature and salinity in a shearing coordinate system. We find that—– unlike many other double-diffusive systems—the sheared staircase requires three-dimensional simulations to properly capture the dynamics. Our simulations predict shear patterns that are consistent with observations and show that staircases in the presence of external shear should be expected to transport heat and salt at least twice as efficiently as in the corresponding non-sheared systems. These findings may lead to critical improvements in the representation of micro-scale mixing in global climate models. 

   more » « less
2. An overview of Beaufort Sea eddies, internal waves, and spice from several recent field efforts and implications for acoustic propagation

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1121/1.5067423  

   Colosi, John (October 2018, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America)

   Several recent field efforts have revealed surprisingly complex and dynamic thermohaline structure in the upper ocean of the Beaufort Sea. Solitary and compact eddies with strong temperature contrasts and currents have been observed in multiple locations and are associated with vigorous mixing, staircase structure and intrusive feature formation. While many of the eddies are primarily found in the upper 300-m of the water column, rare deep eddies with cores near 500 to 1000-m depth have also been observed. Internal waves are generally weak with energies an order of magnitude less than mid-latitude values and they show marked dominance by near inertial waves, intermittency, spatial inhomogeneity, and deviations from the Garrett-Munk model. Strong intrusive structure, termed spice, is observed in the upper 150-m of the water column and is associated with the mixed layer and eddy activity. Acoustic implications of the associated sound speed structure will be discussed. 

   more » « less
3. Initiation of diffusive layering by time-dependent shear

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2018.790  

   Brown, Justin M.; Radko, Timour (January 2019, Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   null (Ed.)

   The Arctic halocline is generally stable to the development of double-diffusive and dynamic instabilities – the two major sources of small-scale mixing in the mid-latitude oceans. Despite this, observations show the abundance of double-diffusive staircases in the Arctic Ocean, which suggests the presence of some destabilizing process facilitating the transition from smooth-gradient to layered stratification. Recent studies have shown that an instability can develop in such circumstances if weak static shear is present even when the flow is dynamically and diffusively stable. However, the impact of oscillating shear, associated with the presence of internal gravity waves, has not yet been addressed for the diffusive case. Through two-dimensional simulations of diffusive convection, we have investigated the impact of the magnitude and frequency of externally forced oscillatory shear on the thermohaline-shear instability. Simulations with stochastic shear – characterized by a continuous spectrum of frequencies from inertial to buoyancy – indicate that thermohaline layering does occur due to the presence of destabilizing modes (oscillations of near the buoyancy frequency). These simulations show that such layers appear as well-defined steps in the temperature and salinity profiles. Thus, the thermohaline-shear instability is a plausible mechanism for staircase formation in the Arctic and merits substantial future study. 

   more » « less
4. The Regulation of Sea Ice Thickness by Double‐Diffusive Processes in the Ross Gyre

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015247  

   Bebieva, Yana; Speer, Kevin (October 2019, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)

   Abstract New fine‐scale observations from the central Ross Gyre reveal the presence of double‐diffusive staircase structures underlying the surface mixed layer. These structures are persistent over seasons, with more developed mixed layers within the double‐diffusive staircase in winter months. The sensitivity of the ice formation rate with respect to mixing processes within the main pycnocline (double‐diffusive versus purely turbulent mixing) is investigated with the 1‐D model. A scenario with purely turbulent mixing results in significant underestimates of sea ice thickness. However, a scenario when double‐diffusive mixing operates in the presence of weak shear yields plausible ranges for sea ice thickness that agrees well with the observations. The model results and observations suggest a peculiar feedback mechanism that promotes the self‐maintenance of double‐diffusive staircases. Suppression of the vertical heat fluxes due to the presence of a double‐diffusive staircase, compared to purely turbulent case, allows Upper Circumpolar Deep Water to be more exposed to surface buoyancy fluxes. Our results shed light on the process—double diffusion—that might account for estimated rates of winter water mass transformation in the central Ross Gyre. 

   more » « less
5. Eddy–Internal Wave Interactions and Their Contribution to Cross-Scale Energy Fluxes: A Case Study in the California Current

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-23-0181.1  

   Delpech, Audrey; Barkan, Roy; Srinivasan, Kaushik; McWilliams, James_C; Arbic, Brian_K; Siyanbola, Oladeji_Q; Buijsman, Maarten_C (March 2024, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   Abstract Oceanic mixing, mostly driven by the breaking of internal waves at small scales in the ocean interior, is of major importance for ocean circulation and the ocean response to future climate scenarios. Understanding how internal waves transfer their energy to smaller scales from their generation to their dissipation is therefore an important step for improving the representation of ocean mixing in climate models. In this study, the processes leading to cross-scale energy fluxes in the internal wave field are quantified using an original decomposition approach in a realistic numerical simulation of the California Current. We quantify the relative contribution of eddy–internal wave interactions and wave–wave interactions to these fluxes and show that eddy–internal wave interactions are more efficient than wave–wave interactions in the formation of the internal wave continuum spectrum. Carrying out twin numerical simulations, where we successively activate or deactivate one of the main internal wave forcing, we also show that eddy–near-inertial internal wave interactions are more efficient in the cross-scale energy transfer than eddy–tidal internal wave interactions. This results in the dissipation being dominated by the near-inertial internal waves over tidal internal waves. A companion study focuses on the role of stimulated cascade on the energy and enstrophy fluxes. 

   more » « less