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Abstract Physical processes behind flow‐topography interactions and turbulent transitions are essential for parameterization in numerical models. We examine how the Kuroshio cascades energy into turbulence upon passing over a seamount, employing a combination of shipboard measurements, tow‐yo microstructure profiling, and high‐resolution mooring. The seamount, spanning 5 km horizontally with two summits, interacts with the Kuroshio, whose flow speed ranges from 1 to 2 m s⁻¹, modulated by tides. The forward energy cascade process is commenced by forming a train of 2–3 nonlinear lee waves behind the summit with a wavelength of 0.5–1 km and an amplitude of 50–100 m. A train of Kelvin‐Helmholtz (KH) billows develops immediately below the lee waves and extends downstream, leading to enhanced turbulence. The turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate isO(10⁻⁷–10⁻⁴) W kg⁻¹, varying in phase with the upstream flow speed modulated by tides. KH billows occur primarily at the lee wave's trailing edge, where the combined strong downstream shear and low‐stratification recirculation trigger the shear instability,Ri < 1/4. The recirculation also creates an overturn susceptible to gravitational instability. This scenario resembles the rotor, commonly found in atmospheric mountain waves but rarely observed in the ocean. A linear stability analysis further suggests that critical levels, where the KH instability extracts energy from the mean flow, are located predominantly at the strong shear layer of the lee wave's upwelling portion, coinciding with the upper boundary of the rotor. These novel observations may provide insights into flow‐topography interactions and improve physics‐based turbulence parameterization. 

Abstract Generating mechanisms and parameterizations for enhanced turbulence in the wake of a seamount in the path of the Kuroshio are investigated. Full-depth profiles of finescale temperature, salinity, horizontal velocity, and microscale thermal-variance dissipation rate up- and downstream of the ∼10-km-wide seamount were measured with EM-APEX profiling floats and ADCP moorings. Energetic turbulent kinetic energy dissipation ratesand diapycnal diffusivitiesabove the seamount flanks extend at least 20 km downstream. This extended turbulent wake length is inconsistent with isotropic turbulence, which is expected to decay in less than 100 m based on turbulence decay time ofN⁻¹∼ 100 s and the 0.5 m s⁻¹Kuroshio flow speed. Thus, the turbulent wake must be maintained by continuous replenishment which might arise from (i) nonlinear instability of a marginally unstable vortex wake, (ii) anisotropic stratified turbulence with expected downstream decay scales of 10–100 km, and/or (iii) lee-wave critical-layer trapping at the base of the Kuroshio. Three turbulence parameterizations operating on different scales, (i) finescale, (ii) large-eddy, and (iii) reduced-shear, are tested. Averageεvertical profiles are well reproduced by all three parameterizations. Vertical wavenumber spectra for shear and strain are saturated over 10–100 m vertical wavelengths comparable to water depth with spectral levels independent ofεand spectral slopes of −1, indicating that the wake flows are strongly nonlinear. In contrast, vertical divergence spectral levels increase withε. 

Microstructure measurements in Drake Passage and on the flanks of Kerguelen Plateau find turbulent dissipation rates ε on average factors of 2–3 smaller than linear lee-wave generation predictions, as well as a factor of 3 smaller than the predictions of a well-established parameterization based on finescale shear and strain. Here, the possibility that these discrepancies are a result of conservation of wave action E/ ω_L= E/| kU| is explored. Conservation of wave action will transfer a fraction of the lee-wave radiation back to the mean flow if the waves encounter weakening currents U, where the intrinsic or Lagrangian frequency ω_L= | kU| ↓ | f| and k the along-stream horizontal wavenumber, where kU ≡ k ⋅ V. The dissipative fraction of power that is lost to turbulence depends on the Doppler shift of the intrinsic frequency between generation and breaking, hence on the topographic height spectrum and bandwidth N/ f. The partition between dissipation and loss to the mean flow is quantified for typical topographic height spectral shapes and N/ f ratios found in the abyssal ocean under the assumption that blocking is local in wavenumber. Although some fraction of lee-wave generation is always dissipated in a rotating fluid, lee waves are not as large a sink for balanced energy or as large a source for turbulence as previously suggested. The dissipative fraction is 0.44–0.56 for topographic spectral slopes and buoyancy frequencies typical of the deep Southern Ocean, insensitive to flow speed U and topographic splitting. Lee waves are also an important mechanism for redistributing balanced energy within their generating bottom current.