Sylvie Le Gentil

Upper Ocean Turbulence from High-Resolution 3D Simulations

Abstract The authors examine the turbulent properties of a baroclinically unstable oceanic flow using primitive equation (PE) simulations with high resolution (in both horizontal and vertical directions). Resulting dynamics in the surface layers involve large Rossby numbers and significant vortical asymmetries. Furthermore, the ageostrophic divergent motions associated with small-scale surface frontogenesis are shown to significantly alter the nonlinear transfers of kinetic energy and consequently the time evolution of the surface dynamics. Such impact of the ageostrophic motions explains the emergence of the significant cyclone–anticyclone asymmetry and of a strong restratification in the upper layers, which are not allowed by the quasigeostrophic (QG) or surface quasigeostrophic (SQG) theory. However, despite this strong ageostrophic character, some of the main surface properties are surprisingly still close to the surface quasigeostrophic equilibrium. They include a noticeable shallow (≈k−2) velocity s...

Ocean turbulence at meso and submesoscales: connection between surface and interior dynamics

High resolution simulations of ocean turbulence with Rossby number of order one have revealed that upper layer dynamics significantly differs from the interior dynamics. As reported before, upper layer dynamics is characterized with shallow velocity spectrum corresponding to kinetic energy distributed over a spectral range from mesoscales to small scales. This dynamics is driven by small-scale frontogenesis related to surface density anomalies. Interior dynamics is characterized by steeper velocity spectrum and is driven by the potential vorticity anomalies set up by the interior baroclinic instability. Impact of the divergent motions related to surface frontogenesis leads to a warming of the upper layers, a cyclone dominance and a negative skewness of the isopycnal displacements. On the contrary, divergent motions in the interior lead to a cooling of the deeper layers, an anticylone dominance and a positive skewness of the isopycnal displacements. These different ageostrophic processes are consistent with an SQG regime extended to Rossby number of order one on one hand and an interior QG regime extended to Rossby number of order one on the other hand, as proposed by previous studies. Synthesis of these characteristics suggest a connection between upper and deeper layers, induced by the divergent motions, through which small scales near the surface interact with mesoscales in the interior.

First transitions in circular Couette flow with axial stratification

The first flow regimes which have been observed experimentally for a circular Couette flow with a stable, axial stratification in density are investigated through direct numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for a Boussinesq fluid. The setup of two concentric cylinders has a nondimensional gap width of e=(b−a)/a=0.289; the outer cylinder is fixed and the stratification in density in the axial direction is linear. The main effect of an axial density stratification is to reduce the height of the Taylor vortices and to cause the formation of density layers of small aspect ratio. For large enough Prandtl number, the primary bifurcation from circular Couette flow is found to be axisymmetric and of Hopf-type in the direct numerical simulations. An analytical solution for onset of instability and slightly different boundary conditions from the experimental ones agrees within 0.6% with numerical simulations at a Prandtl number of 700. The experimental flow regimes with well-define...

Emergence of Wind-Driven Near-Inertial Waves in the Deep Ocean Triggered by Small-Scale Eddy Vorticity Structures

Usingnumericalsimulationsforcedbyauniformrealisticwindtimeseries,theauthorsshowthatthepresence of a mesoscale eddy field at midlatitudes accelerates the vertical propagation of the wind-forced near-inertial waves (NIW) and produces the emergence of a maximum of vertical velocity into the deep ocean (around 2500 m) characterized by a mean amplitude of 25 m day 21 , a dominant 2f frequency, and scales as small as O(30 km). These results differ from previous studies that reported a smaller depth and larger scales. The authors show that the larger depth observed in the present study (2500 m instead of 1700 m) is due to the wind forcing duration that allows the first five baroclinic modes to disperse and to impact the deep NIW maximum (insteadofthefirsttwomodesasreportedbefore).Thesmallerscales(30 kminsteadof90 km)areexplainedby a resonance mechanism (described in previous studies) that affects the high NIW baroclinic modes, but only whensmall-scalerelativevorticitystructures(relatedtothemesoscaleeddyfield)haveanamplitudethatislarge enough. These results, which point out the importance of the wind forcing duration and the resolution, indicate that the emergence of a deep NIW maximum with a 2f frequency reported before is a robust feature that is enhanced with more realistic conditions. Such 2f frequency in the deep interior raises the question of the mechanisms, still unresolved, that may ultimately transfer this superinertial energy into mixing at these depths.

Tracer Stirring Around a Meddy : The Formation of Layering

AbstractThe dynamics of the formation of layering surrounding meddy-like vortex lenses is investigated using primitive equation (PE), quasigeostrophic (QG), and tracer advection models. Recent in situ data inside a meddy confirmed the formation of highly density-compensated layers in temperature and salinity at the periphery of the vortex core. Very high-resolution PE modeling of an idealized meddy showed the formation of realistic layers even in the absence of double-diffusive processes. The strong density compensation observed in the PE model, in good agreement with in situ data, suggests that stirring might be a leading process in the generation of layering. Passive tracer experiments confirmed that the vertical variance cascade in the periphery of the vortex core is triggered by the vertical shear of the azimuthal velocity, resulting in the generation of thin layers. The time evolution of this process down to scales of O(10) m is quantified, and a simple scaling is proposed and shown to describe preci...

Low-mode internal tides and balanced dynamics disentanglement in altimetric observations: Synergy with surface density observations

The performance of a tentative method that disentangles the contributions of a low-mode internal tide on sea level from that of the balanced mesoscale eddies is examined using an idealized high resolution numerical simulation. This disentanglement is essential for proper estimation from sea level of the ocean circulation related to balanced motions. The method relies on an independent observation of the sea surface water density whose variations are 1/dominated by the balanced dynamics and 2/correlate with variations of potential vorticity at depth for the chosen regime of surface-intensified turbulence. The surface density therefore leads via potential vorticity inversion to an estimate of the balanced contribution to sea level fluctuations. The difference between instantaneous sea level (presumably observed with altimetry) and the balanced estimate compares moderately well with the contribution from the low mode tide. Application to realistic configurations remains to be tested. These results aim at motivating further developments of reconstruction methods of the ocean dynamics based on potential vorticity dynamics arguments. In that context, they are particularly relevant for the upcoming wide-swath high resolution altimetric missions (SWOT).