Publication Abstracts
Canuto 2015
, 2015: PV dynamics: The role of small-scale turbulence, submesoscales and mesoscales. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 120, no. 10, 6971-6985, doi:10.1002/2015JC011043.
The diabatic and frictional components of the PV fluxes J in the Haynes-McIntyre conservation law have been studied with physical arguments, scaling laws and numerical simulations. We suggest a procedure that expresses J in terms of buoyancy and momentum fluxes by small-scale turbulence SS, submesoscales SM and mesoscales M. We employ the latest parameterizations of these processes and derive analytic expressions of the diabatic and frictional J fluxes for arbitrary wind stresses; we then consider the case of an Ekman flow. Small-scale turbulence: at z=0, down and up-front winds contribute equally to the frictional component of J while the diabatic component is much larger than that of mesoscales. Submesoscales: the geostrophic contributions to both diabatic and frictional J have the same sign while the wind contributions have opposite signs. Their magnitude depends on the SM kinetic energy which is derived in terms of large-scale parameters. Comparison with numerical simulations is limited since the ones available resolve M but not SM. They concluded that the field patterns of the J fluxes are very similar to those obtained without resolving M, in agreement with the present analysis; a second conclusion that the diabatic component of J is an order of magnitude larger than the frictional one, is also in accordance with present results. When wind stresses are accounted for, down-front winds lower PV and up-front winds increase it. The changes in Hoskins' criterion for the onset of symmetric instabilities are discussed.
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BibTeX Citation
@article{ca04520u, author={Canuto, V. M.}, title={PV dynamics: The role of small-scale turbulence, submesoscales and mesoscales}, year={2015}, journal={Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans}, volume={120}, number={10}, pages={6971--6985}, doi={10.1002/2015JC011043}, }
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RIS Citation
TY - JOUR ID - ca04520u AU - Canuto, V. M. PY - 2015 TI - PV dynamics: The role of small-scale turbulence, submesoscales and mesoscales JA - J. Geophys. Res. Oceans JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans VL - 120 IS - 10 SP - 6971 EP - 6985 DO - 10.1002/2015JC011043 ER -
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