A Baroclinic Eddy Mixer: Supercritical Transformation of Compensated Eddies

In contrast to many real-ocean rings and eddies, circular vortices with initial lower layer at rest tend to be highly unstable in idealized two-layer models, unless their radius is made small or the lower layer depth is made artificially large. Numerical simulations of unstable vortices with parameters typical for ocean eddies revealed strong deformations and pulsations of the vortex core in the two-layer setup due to development of corotating tripolar structures in the lower layer during their supercritical transformation. The addition of a middle layer with the uniform potential vorticity weakens vertical coupling between the upper and lower layer that enhances vortex stability and makes the vortex lifespan more realistic. Such a three-layer vortex model possesses smaller lower interface slope than the two-layer model that reduces the potential vorticity gradient in the lower layer and provides with less unstable configurations. While cyclonic eddies become only slightly deformed and look nearly circular when the middle layer with uniform potential vorticity is added, anticyclonic eddies tend to corotating and pulsating elongated states through potential vorticity stripping and stirring. Enhanced vortex stability in such three-layer setup has important implications for adequate representation of the energy transfer across scales.