Related papers: Abyssal Slope Currents
The mean state of the atmosphere and ocean is set through a balance between external forcing (winds, radiation, heat and freshwater fluxes) and the emergent turbulence, which transfers energy to dissipative structures. The forcing gives…
Small-scale oceanic motions, in combination with bottom topography, induce mean large-scale along-isobaths flows. The direction of these mean flows is usually found to be anticyclonic (cyclonic) over bumps (depressions). Here we employ a…
Ocean mesoscale eddies enhance meridional buoyancy transport, notably in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current where they contribute to setting the deep stratification of the neighboring ocean basins. The much-needed parameterization of this…
Buoyancy-driven turbulent convection leads to a fully compressible flow with a strong top-down asymmetry of first- and second-order statistics when the adiabatic equilibrium profiles of temperature, density and pressure decay very strongly…
Recent studies indicate that altimetric observations of the ocean's mesoscale eddy field reflect the combined influence of surface buoyancy and interior potential vorticity anomalies. The former have a surface-trapped structure, while the…
The Eady problem of baroclinic instability as applicable to quasi-geostrophic oceanic flows with zero internal PV gradients is revisited by introducing a mild slope and Ekman pumping on the lower boundary. The solution behaviour is…
Laboratory and field measurements made over the past decade have shown the presence of a strong wave-driven mean current in submerged vegetation canopies. Luhar et al. (2010) suggested that this mean current is analogous to the streaming…
The near-bottom mixing that allows abyssal waters to upwell tilts isopycnals and spins up flow over the flanks of mid-ocean ridges. Meso- and large-scale currents along sloping topography are subjected to a delicate balance of Ekman arrest…
Growing evidence is found in observations and numerical modelling of the importance of steep seafloor topography for turbulent diapycnal mixing leading to redistribution of suspended matter and nutrients, especially in waters with abundant…
It has been suggested that the upwelling branch of the abyssal overturning circulation is characterized by strong flows driven by turbulence along sloping topography. The Boundary Layer Turbulence field campaign has provided direct evidence…
We consider the nonlinear evolution of an unstable baroclinic wave in a regime of rotating stratified flow that is of relevance to interior circulation in the oceans and in the atmosphere---a regime characterized by small large-scale Rossby…
We study the development of mean structures in a nonlinear model of large scale ocean dynamics with bottom topography and dissipation, and forced with a noise term. We show that the presence of noise in this nonlinear model leads to…
Turbulence and large-scale waves in the tropical region are studied using the spherical shallow water equations. With mesoscale vorticity forcing, both moist and dry systems show kinetic energy scaling that is dominated by rotational modes,…
Quasigeostrophic flows are induced by spatial variations in interior potential vorticity and boundary buoyancy. We begin by developing the geostrophic turbulence theory of boundary buoyancy anomalies in a fluid with vanishing potential…
Recent field campaigns have consistently documented bottom-intensified mixing near the seafloor, suggesting diabatic downwelling in the abyssal ocean. This phenomenon appears to contradict with the mass balance of the abyssal ocean, where…
Oceanic geostrophic turbulence is mostly forced at the surface, yet strong bottom-trapped flows are commonly observed along topographic anomalies. Here we consider the case of a freely evolving, initially surface-intensified velocity field…
The spatial characteristics and structure of an axisymmetric turbulent boundary layer under strong adverse pressure gradient and weak transverse curvature are investigated using incompressible large-eddy simulation. The boundary layer is on…
The mechanism that causes an interdecadal oscillation in a coarse resolution sector ocean model forced by mixed boundary conditions is studied. The oscillation is characterized by large fluctuations in convective activity and air/sea heat…
At large scales, the Reynolds stress tensor exhibits notable anisotropy, a key feature of all wall-bounded turbulent flows. Yet, how the drivers of this anisotropy evolve with shearing and thermal stratification in the atmospheric surface…
We describe a stochastic variability mechanism which is genuinely internal to the ocean, i.e. not due to fluctuations in atmospheric forcing. % The key ingredient is the existence of closed contours of bottom topography surrounded by a…