PS43A:
Facing the Challenges in Interpreting High-Resolution Satellite Observations due to the Coexistence of Internal Gravity Waves and Balanced Motions in the World Oceans I


Session ID#: 37480

Session Description:
Near-inertial waves and internal tides are the dominant modes of high-frequency internal variability in the ocean, and they scatter into a broad-band inertia-gravity wave spectrum. These high-frequency waves are also known to interact with low-frequency motions associated with “balanced” turbulence (including geostrophic mesoscale eddies and sub-mesoscale fronts and vortices with finite Rossby number). Theoretical and numerical studies of the last decade have demonstrated the importance of these interactions for wave dispersion and energy transfer in the 1km-100km scale range, as well as their effects on the spatial variability of mixing and the route to dissipation. Recent studies have further highlighted the potential impacts of these wave-turbulence interactions on not only high-resolution in-situ observations but also high-resolution satellite observations. This concerns SAR images and also observations from future altimetry missions such as the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. These impacts point to new scientific challenges for the interpretation of these high-resolution observations in terms of distinguishing waves from balanced currents and deciphering their interactions. The purpose of this session is to review what we know about these interactions, to identify the questions that still need to be addressed, and to consider how to meet these new challenges.
Primary Chair:  Patrice Klein, Cnrs/Ifremer/LOPS, Plouzané, France; Caltech/JPL, Pasadena, United States
Co-chairs:  Lee-Lueng Fu, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, James C McWilliams, University of California Los Angeles, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Rosemary Morrow, CNES French National Center for Space Studies, Toulouse Cedex 09, France
Moderators:  Jörn Callies, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, Aurelien Ponte, CNRS-IFREMER-IRD-UBO, LOPS, Plouzané, France and Roy Barkan, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Aurelien Ponte, CNRS-IFREMER-IRD-UBO, LOPS, Plouzané, France
Index Terms:

4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4528 Fronts and jets [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4544 Internal and inertial waves [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • PL - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

How Much of the Ageostrophic Energy in the Ocean is Associated with Linear Internal Waves? (324862)
Roy Barkan and James C McWilliams, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Influence of Submesoscale Flows and Inertia-gravity Waves on Lagrangian Transport Barriers (323409)
Anirban Sinha, Columbia University, Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, New York, NY, United States and Ryan Abernathey, Columbia University of New York, Palisades, NY, United States
Oceanic Balanced Motions and Internal Gravity Waves from Space: Seasonality and Geographical Distribution (309687)
Hector S Torres1, Patrice Klein2, Dimitris Menemenlis3, Zhan Su4, Jinbo Wang1, Bo Qiu5, Shuiming Chen5 and Lee-Lueng Fu3, (1)JPL/NASA/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Cnrs/Ifremer/LOPS, Plouzané, France, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)Univ Hawaii Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States
Vertical velocity in the upper ocean (307775)
Eric A D'Asaro, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States and Andrey Shcherbina, Applied Physics Lab, Univ of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Characterizing Submesoscale Variability in the Southern California Current System (306136)
Teresa K Chereskin1, Cesar B Rocha1, Sarah T Gille1 and Dimitris Menemenlis2, (1)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, (2)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States
Low-mode internal tides and balanced dynamics disentanglement in altimetric observations: Synergy with surface density observations (310520)
Aurelien Ponte, CNRS-IFREMER-IRD-UBO, LOPS, Plouzané, France, Sylvie Le Gentil, Laboratoire de Physique des Océans, Brest, France, Patrice Klein, Cnrs/Ifremer/LOPS, Plouzané, France and Michael Dunphy, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, BC, Canada
Comparison of internal gravity wave spectra in high-resolution global simulations with observations (304586)
Brian K Arbic1, Matthew H Alford2, Joseph K Ansong3, Maarten C Buijsman4, Conrad A Luecke1, Dimitris Menemenlis5, James G Richman6, Anna Savage7 and Jay F Shriver8, (1)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (2)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, (3)Univ of MI-Earth & Environ Sci, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (4)University of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Space Center, MS, United States, (5)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)COAPS, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States, (7)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Portland, ME, United States, (8)Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, Stennis Space Center, MS, United States
Ocean submesoscales as a key component of the global heat budget (315478)
Zhan Su1, Jinbo Wang2, Patrice Klein3, Andrew F Thompson1 and Dimitris Menemenlis4, (1)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)JPL/NASA/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)Ifremer, France, (4)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States

See more of: Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller