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Abstract The submesoscale energy budget is complex and remains understood only in region-by-region analyses. Based on a series of nested numerical simulations, this study investigated the submesoscale energy budget and flux in the upper ocean of the Kuroshio Extension, including some innovations for examining submesoscale energy budgets in general. The highest-resolution simulation on a ~500 m grid resolves a variety of submesoscale instabilities allowing an energetic analysis in the submesoscale range. The frequency–wavenumber spectra of vertical vorticity variance (i.e., enstrophy) and horizontal divergence variance were used to identify the scales of submesoscale flows as distinct from those of inertia-gravity waves but dominating horizontal divergence variance. Next, the energy transfers between the background scales and the submesoscale were examined. The submesoscale kinetic and potential energy (SMKE and SMPE) were mainly contained in the mixed layer and energized through both barotropic (shear production) and baroclinic (buoyancy production) routes. Averaged over the upper 50 m of ROMS2, the baroclinic transfers amounted to approximately 75% of the sources for the SMKE (3.42 × 10 −9 W/kg) versus the remaining 25% (1.12 × 10 −9 W/kg) via barotropic downscale KE transfers. The KE field was greatly strengthened by energy sources through the boundary—this flux is larger than the mesoscale-to-submesoscale transfers in this region. Spectral energy production, importantly, reveals upscale KE transfers at larger submesoscales and downscale KE transfers at smaller submesoscales (i.e., a transition from inverse to forward KE cascade). This study seeks to extend our understanding of the energy cycle to the submesoscale and highlight the forward KE cascade induced by upper-ocean submesoscale activities in the research domain.
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Probing the Nonlinear Interactions of Supertidal Internal Waves Using a High-Resolution Regional Ocean Model
Abstract The internal wave (IW) continuum of a regional ocean model is studied in terms of the vertical spectral kinetic energy (KE) fluxes and transfers at high vertical wavenumbers. Previous work has shown that this model permits a partial representation of the IW cascade. In this work, vertical spectral KE flux is decomposed into catalyst, source, and destination vertical modes and frequency bands of nonlinear scattering, a framework that allows for the discernment of different types of nonlinear interactions involving both waves and eddies. Energy transfer within the supertidal IW continuum is found to be strongly dependent on resolution. Specifically, at a horizontal grid spacing of 1/48°, most KE in the supertidal continuum arrives there from lower-frequency modes through a single nonlinear interaction, whereas at 1/384° and with sufficient vertical resolution KE transfers within the supertidal IW continuum are comparable in size to KE transfer from lower-frequency modes. Additionally, comparisons are made with existing theoretical and observational work on energy pathways in the IW continuum. Induced diffusion (ID) is found to be associated with a weak forward frequency transfer within the supertidal IW continuum. ID is also limited to the highest vertical wavenumbers and is more sensitive to resolution relative to spectrally local interactions. At the same time, ID-like processes involving high-vertical-wavenumber near-inertial and tidal waves as well as low-vertical-wavenumber eddy fields are substantial, suggesting that the processes giving rise to a Garrett–Munk-like spectra in the present numerical simulation and perhaps the real ocean may be more varied than in idealized or wave-only frameworks.
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- PAR ID:
- 10493366
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Physical Oceanography
- Volume:
- 54
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0022-3670
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 399 to 425
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-22-0236.1
