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    Southern Ocean seasonal restratification delayed by submesoscale wind-front interactions

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    Article (2.530Mb)
    Date
    2019-04-11
    Author
    du Plessis, Marcel  Concept link
    Swart, Sebastiaan  Concept link
    Ansorge, Isabelle  Concept link
    Mahadevan, Amala  Concept link
    Thompson, Andrew F.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24212
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0136.1
    DOI
    10.1175/JPO-D-18-0136.1
    Keyword
     Atmosphere-ocean interaction; Fronts; Oceanic mixed layer; In situ oceanic observations; Interannual variability; Seasonal cycle 
    Abstract
    Ocean stratification and the vertical extent of the mixed layer influence the rate at which the ocean and atmosphere exchange properties. This process has direct impacts for anthropogenic heat and carbon uptake in the Southern Ocean. Submesoscale instabilities that evolve over space (1–10 km) and time (from hours to days) scales directly influence mixed layer variability and are ubiquitous in the Southern Ocean. Mixed layer eddies contribute to mixed layer restratification, while down-front winds, enhanced by strong synoptic storms, can erode stratification by a cross-frontal Ekman buoyancy flux. This study investigates the role of these submesoscale processes on the subseasonal and interannual variability of the mixed layer stratification using four years of high-resolution glider data in the Southern Ocean. An increase of stratification from winter to summer occurs due to a seasonal warming of the mixed layer. However, we observe transient decreases in stratification lasting from days to weeks, which can arrest the seasonal restratification by up to two months after surface heat flux becomes positive. This leads to interannual differences in the timing of seasonal restratification by up to 36 days. Parameterizing the Ekman buoyancy flux in a one-dimensional mixed layer model reduces the magnitude of stratification compared to when the model is run using heat and freshwater fluxes alone. Importantly, the reduced stratification occurs during the spring restratification period, thereby holding important implications for mixed layer dynamics in climate models as well as physical–biological coupling in the Southern Ocean.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 49(4), (2019): 1035-1053, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0136.1.
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    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Du Plessis, M., Swart, S., Ansorge, I. J., Mahadevan, A., & Thompson, A. F. (2019). Southern Ocean seasonal restratification delayed by submesoscale wind-front interactions. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49(4), 1035-1053
     

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