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Abstract Mixing along isopycnals plays an important role in the transport and uptake of oceanic tracers. Isopycnal mixing is commonly quantified by a tracer diffusivity. Previous studies have estimated the tracer diffusivity using the rate of dispersion of surface drifters, subsurface floats, or numerical particles advected by satellite‐derived velocity fields. This study shows that the diffusivity can be more efficiently estimated from the dispersion of coherent mesoscale eddies. Coherent eddies are identified and tracked as the persistent sea surface height extrema in both a two‐layer quasigeostrophic (QG) model and an idealized primitive equation (PE) model. The Lagrangian diffusivity is estimated using the tracks of these coherent eddies and compared to the diagnosed Eulerian diffusivity. It is found that the meridional coherent eddy diffusivity approaches a stable value within about 20–40 days in both models. In the QG model, the coherent eddy diffusivity is a good approximation to the upper‐layer tracer diffusivity in a broad range of flow regimes, except for small values of bottom friction or planetary vorticity gradient, where the motions of same‐sign eddies are correlated over long distances. In the PE model, the tracer diffusivity has a complicated vertical structure and the coherent eddy diffusivity is correlated with the tracer diffusivity at the e‐folding depth of the energy‐containing eddies where the intrinsic speed of the coherent eddies matches the rms eddy velocity. These results suggest that the oceanic tracer diffusivity at depth can be estimated from the movements of coherent mesoscale eddies, which are routinely tracked from satellite observations.
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On the Vertical Structure of Oceanic Mesoscale Tracer Diffusivities
Abstract Isopycnal mixing of tracers is important for ocean dynamics and biogeochemistry. Previous studies have primarily focused on the horizontal structure of mixing, but what controls its vertical structure is still unclear. This study investigates the vertical structure of the isopycnal tracer diffusivity diagnosed by a multiple‐tracer inversion method in an idealized basin circulation model. The first two eigenvalues of the symmetric part of the 3D diffusivity tensor are approximately tangent to isopycnal surfaces. The isopycnal mixing is anisotropic, with principal directions of the large and small diffusivities generally oriented along and across the mean flow direction. The cross‐stream diffusivity can be reconstructed from the along‐stream diffusivity after accounting for suppression of mixing by the mean flow. In the circumpolar channel and the upper ocean in the gyres, the vertical structure of the along‐stream diffusivity follows that of the rms eddy velocity times a depth‐independent local energy‐containing scale estimated from the sea surface height. The diffusivity in the deep ocean in the gyres instead follows the profile of the eddy kinetic energy times a depth‐independent mixing time scale. The transition between the two mixing regimes is attributed to the dominance of nonlinear interactions and linear waves in the upper and deep ocean, respectively, distinguished by a nonlinearity parameter. A formula is proposed that accounts for both regimes and captures the vertical variation of diffusivities better than extant theories. These results inform efforts to parameterize the vertical structure of isopycnal mixing in coarse‐resolution ocean models.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2048826
- PAR ID:
- 10446245
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1942-2466
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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