Anisotropic Statistics of Lagrangian Structure Functions and Helmholtz Decomposition

Abstract

Second-order velocity structure functions are commonly estimated from Lagrangian tracer trajectories. A Helmholtz decomposition of these structure functions, which separates their divergent and rotational components, can indicate the robustness of geostrophic balance at different scales, and serves as a building block for analysis of scale-dependent energy distributions. We present a new method to estimate second-order horizontal velocity structure functions, as well as their Helmholtz decomposition, from sparse data collected by Lagrangian observations. The novelty compared to existing methods is that we allow for anisotropic statistics in the velocity field as well as in the distribution of the Lagrangian trackers. We conduct the analysis through the lens of azimuthal Fourier expansions, and find Helmholtz decomposition formulae targeted at individual Fourier modes. We also identify an improved statistical angleweighting technique that generally increases the accuracy of structure function estimations in the presence of anisotropy. The new methods are tested against synthetic data and applied to surface drifter data sets such as LASER and GLAD. Importantly, the new method does not require extra measurements compared to existing methods based on isotropy.