PO33B:
The Ocean's Energy Cascade: Measuring and Modeling of Instabilities, Internal Waves, and Turbulence at the Submesoscale and Smaller V


Session ID#: 11433

Session Description:
Large scale O(10^5 m) oceanic motions are linked to the turbulent scales O(<1 m) through a variety of mechanisms including internal wave radiation, interaction, and scattering, frontal instabilities, and boundary layer physics. Such mechanisms are essential for the vertical redistribution of energy generated along the ocean’s upper and bottom boundaries and thus are of critical importance in providing mechanical energy to processes in the stratified interior of the ocean. Regions of enhanced mixing are often found where a combination of currents, stratification, and topography act together to increase the potential for nonlinear interactions in the flow, for example through frontal instabilities and strong internal wave generation. Enhanced turbulence leads to mixing of water mass properties and changes to flow dynamics that can feedback on the larger-scale physics.  This session welcomes contributions from observational, theoretical, and numerical studies of the ocean's energy cascade at small scales (i.e. submesoscale and smaller).
Primary Chair:  Subhas Karan Venayagamoorthy, Colorado State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Fort Collins, CO, United States
Chairs:  Louis St Laurent, Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Emily Shroyer, Oregon State Univ, Corvallis, OR, United States and Harper L Simmons, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States
Moderators:  Subhas Karan Venayagamoorthy, Colorado State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Fort Collins, CO, United States and Louis St Laurent, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, MA, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Emily Shroyer, Oregon State Univ, Corvallis, OR, United States
Index Terms:

4524 Fine structure and microstructure [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4544 Internal and inertial waves [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4562 Topographic/bathymetric interactions [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • A - Air-sea Interactions and Upper Ocean Processes
  • EC - Estuarine and Coastal
  • OD - Ocean Observing and Data Management
  • TP - Turbulent Processes

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

PO33B-01
On Turbulence Losses at Rough Topography: LES results (89319)
Sutanu Sarkar1, Masoud Jalali1 and Vamsi K Chalamalla2, (1)University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, (2)University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
PO33B-02
Highly efficient boundary mixing near sloping topography in a non-tidal basin (91382)
Chris Lappe and Lars Umlauf, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Rostock, Germany
PO33B-03
Effects of Anisotropy on Observation of Turbulent Dissipation in Bottom Boundary Layers (92520)
Leon Boegman, Aidin Jabbari and Ugo Piomelli, Queen's University, Civil Engineering, Kingston, ON, Canada
PO33B-04
Internal Wave Scattering in Continental Slope Canyons: A Parameter Space Study (87902)
Robert Nazarian, Princeton University, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton, NJ, United States and Sonya Legg, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
PO33B-05
Generation mechanisms and energetics of internal waves around an island (87515)
Eiji Masunaga1, Oliver B Fringer2 and Hidekatsu Yamazaki1, (1)Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan, (2)Stanford University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford, CA, United States
PO33B-06
Global Patterns of Turbulence and Diapycnal Mixing from CTD-Chipods on the Global Repeat Hydrography Program (88567)
Andrew Pickering1, Jonathan D Nash2, Jim Moum2 and Jennifer A MacKinnon3, (1)Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, (2)Oregon State Univ, Corvallis, OR, United States, (3)University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
PO33B-07
Vertical Kinetic Energy Observed With LADCP/CTD Systems (92403)
Andreas M Thurnherr, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States
PO33B-08
Nine years of temporal and spatial low-mode internal wave variability in the Atlantic Basin at 26N (92369)
Kim I Martini, Sea-Bird Scientific, Bellevue, WA, United States and Zoltan B Szuts, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
See more of: Physical Oceanography/Ocean Circulation