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Register a new userToward Regional Characterizations of the Oceanic Internal Wavefield
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Many major oceanographic internal wave observational programs of the last 4 decades are reanalyzed in order to characterize variability of the deep ocean internal wavefield. The observations are discussed in the context of the universal spectral model proposed by Garrett and Munk. The Garrett and Munk model is a good description of wintertime conditions at Site-D on the continental rise north of the Gulf Stream. Elsewhere and at other times, significant deviations in terms of amplitude, separability of the 2-D vertical wavenumber - frequency spectrum, and departure from the models functional form are noted. Subtle geographic patterns are apparent in deviations from the high frequency and high vertical wavenumber power laws of the Garrett and Munk spectrum. Moreover, such deviations tend to co-vary: whiter frequency spectra are partnered with redder vertical wavenumber spectra. Attempts are made to interpret the variability in terms of the interplay between generation, propagation and nonlinearity using a statistical radiative balance equation. This process frames major questions for future research with the insight that such integrative studies could constrain both observationally and theoretically based interpretations.
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Atmosphere and ocean are coupled via air-sea interactions. The atmospheric conditions fuel the ocean circulation and its variability, but the extent to which ocean processes can affect the atmosphere at decadal time scales remains unclear. In particular, such low-frequency variability is difficult to extract from the short observational record, meaning that climate models are the primary tools deployed to resolve this question. Here, we assess how the oceans intrinsic variability leads to patterns of upper-ocean heat content that vary at decadal time scales. These patterns have the potential to feed back on the atmosphere and thereby affect climate modes of variability, such as El Ni~no or the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. We use the output from a global ocean-sea ice circulation model at three different horizontal resolutions, each driven by the same atmospheric reanalysis. To disentangle the variability of the oceans direct response to atmospheric forcing from the variability due to intrinsic ocean dynamics, we compare model runs driven with inter-annually varying forcing (1958-2018) and model runs driven with repeat-year forcing. Models with coarse resolution that rely on eddy parameterizations, show (i) significantly reduced variance of the upper-ocean heat content at decadal time scales and (ii) differences in the spatial patterns of low-frequency variability compared with higher resolution models. Climate projections are typically done with general circulation models with coarse-resolution ocean components. Therefore, these biases affect our ability to predict decadal climate modes of variability and, in turn, hinder climate projections. Our results suggest that for improving climate projections, the community should move towards coupled climate models with higher oceanic resolution.
We provide a first-principles explanation of the renown phenomenological formula for the turbulent dissipation rate in the ocean which is known as the Finescale Parameterization. The prediction is based on the wave turbulence theory of internal gravity waves and on a new methodology devised for the computation of the associated energy fluxes. In the standard spectral representation of the wave energy density, in the two-dimensional vertical wavenumber - frequency domain, the energy fluxes associated with the steady state are found to be directed downscale in both coordinates, closely matching the Finescale-Parameterization formula in functional form and in magnitude. These energy transfers are composed of a `local and a `scale-separated contributions; while the former is quantified numerically, the latter is dominated by the Induced Diffusion process and is amenable to analytical treatment. Contrary to previous results indicating an inverse energy cascade from high frequency to low, at odds with observations, our analysis of all non-zero coefficients of the diffusion tensor predicts a direct energy cascade. Moreover, by the same analysis fundamental spectra that had been deemed `no-flux solutions are reinstated to the status of `constant-downscale-flux solutions. This is consequential for an understanding of energy fluxes, sources and sinks that fits in the observational paradigm of the Finescale Parameterization, solving at once two long-standing paradoxes that had earned the name of `Oceanic Ultraviolet Catastrophe.
As new techniques exploiting the Earths ambient seismic noise field are developed and applied, such as for the observation of temporal changes in seismic velocity structure, it is crucial to quantify the precision with which wave-type measurements can be made. This work uses array data at the Homestake mine in Lead, South Dakota and an array at Sweetwater, Texas to consider two aspects that control this precision: the types of seismic wave contributing to the ambient noise field at microseism frequencies and the effect of array geometry. Both are quantified using measurements of wavefield coherence between stations in combination with Wiener filters. We find a strong seasonal change between body-wave and surface-wave content. Regarding the inclusion of underground stations, we quantify the lower limit to which the ambient noise field can be characterized and reproduced; the applications of the Wiener filters are about 4 times more successful in reproducing ambient noise waveforms when underground stations are included in the array, resulting in predictions of seismic timeseries with less than a 1% residual, and are ultimately limited by the geometry and aperture of the array, as well as by temporal variations in the seismic field. We discuss the implications of these results for the geophysics community performing ambient seismic noise studies, as well as for the cancellation of seismic Newtonian gravity noise in ground-based, sub-Hz, gravitational-wave detectors.
We study the impact of three stochastic parametrizations in the ocean component of a coupled model, on forecast reliability over seasonal timescales. The relative impacts of these schemes upon the ocean mean state and ensemble spread are analyzed. The oceanic variability induced by the atmospheric forcing of the coupled system is, in most regions, the major source of ensemble spread. The largest impact on spread and bias came from the Stochastically Perturbed Parametrization Tendency (SPPT) scheme - which has proven particularly effective in the atmosphere. The key regions affected are eddy-active regions, namely the western boundary currents and the Southern Ocean. However, unlike its impact in the atmosphere, SPPT in the ocean did not result in a significant decrease in forecast error. Whilst there are good grounds for implementing stochastic schemes in ocean models, our results suggest that they will have to be more sophisticated. Some suggestions for next-generation stochastic schemes are made.
We analyze analytically and numerically the scale invariant stationary solution to the internal wave kinetic equation. Our analysis of the resonant energy transfers shows that the leading order contributions are given (i) by triads with extreme scale separation and (ii) by triads of waves that are quasi-colinear in the horizontal plane. The contributions from other types of triads is found to be subleading. We use the modified scale invariant limit of the Garrett and Munk spectrum of internal waves to calculate the magnitude of the energy flux towards high wave numbers in both the vertical and the horizontal directions. Our results compare favorably with the finescale parametrization of ocean mixing that was proposed in [Polzin et al. (1995)].
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