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Abstract Microstructure observations in the Pacific cold tongue reveal that turbulence often penetrates into the thermocline, producing hundreds of watts per square meter of downward heat transport during nighttime and early morning. However, virtually all observations of this deep-cycle turbulence (DCT) are from 0°, 140°W. Here, a hierarchy of ocean process simulations, including submesoscale-permitting regional models and turbulence-permitting large-eddy simulations (LES) embedded in a regional model, provide insight into mixing and DCT at and beyond 0°, 140°W. A regional hindcast quantifies the spatiotemporal variability of subsurface turbulent heat fluxes throughout the cold tongue from 1999 to 2016. Mean subsurface turbulent fluxes are strongest (∼100 W m −2 ) within 2° of the equator, slightly (∼10 W m −2 ) stronger in the northern than Southern Hemisphere throughout the cold tongue, and correlated with surface heat fluxes ( r 2 = 0.7). The seasonal cycle of the subsurface heat flux, which does not covary with the surface heat flux, ranges from 150 W m −2 near the equator to 30 and 10 W m −2 at 4°N and 4°S, respectively. Aseasonal variability of the subsurface heat flux is logarithmically distributed, covaries spatially with the time-mean flux, and is highlighted in 34-day LES of boreal autumn at 0° and 3°N, 140°W. Intense DCT occurs frequently above the undercurrent at 0° and intermittently at 3°N. Daily mean heat fluxes scale with the bulk vertical shear and the wind stress, which together explain ∼90% of the daily variance across both LES. Observational validation of the scaling at 0°, 140°W is encouraging, but observations beyond 0°, 140°W are needed to facilitate refinement of mixing parameterization in ocean models. Significance Statement This work is a fundamental contribution to a broad community effort to improve global long-range weather and climate forecast models used for seasonal to longer-term prediction. Much of the predictability on seasonal time scales is derived from the slow evolution of the upper eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean as it varies between El Niño and La Niña conditions. This study presents state-of-the-art high-resolution regional numerical simulations of ocean turbulence and mixing in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The results inform future planning for field work as well as future efforts to refine the representation of ocean mixing in global forecast models.
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Deep-Cycle Turbulence in the Upper Pacific Equatorial Ocean: Characterization by LES and Heat Flux Parameterization
Abstract Observations in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrents (EUC) show that the nighttime deep-cycle turbulence (DCT) in the marginal-instability (MI) layer of the EUC exhibits seasonal variability that can modulate heat transport and sea surface temperature. Large-eddy simulations (LES), spanning a wide range of control parameters, are performed to identify the key processes that influence the turbulent heat flux at multiple time scales ranging from turbulent (minutes to hours) to daily to seasonal. The control parameters include wind stress, convective surface heat flux, shear magnitude, and thickness of the MI layer. In the LES, DCT occurs in discrete bursts during the night, exhibits high temporal variability within a burst, and modulates the mixed layer depth. At the daily time scale, turbulent heat flux generally increases with increasing wind stress, MI-layer shear, or nighttime convection. Convection is found to be important to mixing under weak wind, weak shear conditions. A parameterization for the daily averaged turbulent heat flux is developed from the LES suite to infer the variability of heat flux at the seasonal time scale. The LES-based parameterized heat flux, which takes into account the effects of all control parameters, exhibits a seasonal variability that is similar to the observed heat flux from theχ-pods.
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- PAR ID:
- 10488710
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Physical Oceanography
- Volume:
- 54
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0022-3670
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 577-599
- Size(s):
- p. 577-599
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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