• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Estimating a submesoscale diffusivity using a roughness measure applied to a tracer release experiment in the Southern Ocean

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    jpo-d-14-0047%2E1.pdf (1.953Mb)
    Date
    2015-06
    Author
    Boland, Emma J. D.  Concept link
    Shuckburgh, Emily  Concept link
    Haynes, Peter H.  Concept link
    Ledwell, James R.  Concept link
    Messias, Marie-Jose  Concept link
    Watson, Andrew J.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7384
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0047.1
    DOI
    10.1175/JPO-D-14-0047.1
    Keyword
     Geographic location/entity; Southern Ocean; Circulation/ Dynamics; Diffusion; Physical Meteorology and Climatology; Isopycnal mixing; Observational techniques and algorithms; Tracers; Models and modeling; Model comparison; Tracers 
    Abstract
    The use of a measure to diagnose submesoscale isopycnal diffusivity by determining the best match between observations of a tracer and simulations with varying small-scale diffusivities is tested. Specifically, the robustness of a “roughness” measure to discriminate between tracer fields experiencing different submesoscale isopycnal diffusivities and advected by scaled altimetric velocity fields is investigated. This measure is used to compare numerical simulations of the tracer released at a depth of about 1.5 km in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean during the Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean (DIMES) field campaign with observations of the tracer taken on DIMES cruises. The authors find that simulations with an isopycnal diffusivity of ~20 m2 s−1 best match observations in the Pacific sector of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), rising to ~20–50 m2 s−1 through Drake Passage, representing submesoscale processes and any mesoscale processes unresolved by the advecting altimetry fields. The roughness measure is demonstrated to be a statistically robust way to estimate a small-scale diffusivity when measurements are relatively sparse in space and time, although it does not work if there are too few measurements overall. The planning of tracer measurements during a cruise in order to maximize the robustness of the roughness measure is also considered. It is found that the robustness is increased if the spatial resolution of tracer measurements is increased with the time since tracer release.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. 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 45 (2015): 1610–1631, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0047.1.
    Collections
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Physical Oceanography 45 (2015): 1610–1631
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Diapycnal mixing in the Southern Ocean diagnosed using the DIMES tracer and realistic velocity fields 

      Mackay, Neill; Ledwell, James R.; Messias, Marie-Jose; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.; Brearley, J. Alexander; Meijers, Andrew J. S.; Jones, Daniel C.; Watson, Andrew J. (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-04-13)
      In this work, we use realistic isopycnal velocities with a 3-D eddy diffusivity to advect and diffuse a tracer in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, beginning in the Southeast Pacific and progressing through Drake Passage. ...
    • Thumbnail

      Radium isotopes as tracers of iron sources fueling a Southern Ocean phytoplankton bloom 

      Charette, Matthew A.; Gonneea, Meagan E.; Morris, Paul J.; Statham, Peter J.; Fones, Gary R.; Planquette, Helene; Salter, Ian; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. (2007-04-24)
      Elevated levels of productivity in the wake of Southern Ocean island systems are common despite the fact that they are encircled by high nutrient low chlorophyll (HNLC) waters. In the Crozet Plateau region, it has been ...
    • Thumbnail

      Investigating the eddy diffusivity concept in the coastal ocean 

      Rypina, Irina I.; Kirincich, Anthony R.; Lentz, Steven J.; Sundermeyer, Miles A. (American Meteorological Society, 2016-06-29)
      This paper aims to test the validity, utility, and limitations of the lateral eddy diffusivity concept in a coastal environment through analyzing data from coupled drifter and dye releases within the footprint of a ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo