PS13B:
Turbulent Mixing of the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer: Observation, Simulation, and Parameterization III

Session ID#: 92530

Session Description:
The turbulent ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) communicates heat, mass, and momentum between the atmosphere and ocean interior, hosts the majority of oceanic primary productivity, and plays a key role in the evolution of the earth system over seasonal to centennial time scales. Representing variability in OSBL turbulent mixing is an abiding challenge in the modeling of earth systems due to the complexity of turbulent OSBL processes and their interaction with atmospheric turbulence, ocean interior mixing, surface waves, submesoscale processes, and sea ice.

This session invites contributions from both observational, numerical, and theoretical process studies as well as parameterization development work relating to OSBL turbulent mixing. We are interested in all processes that might affect OSBL turbulent mixing and the evolution of the OSBL, including wind-driven mixing, convection, and wave-driven turbulence --- as well as frontal instabilities and submesoscale baroclinic processes emerging from the breakdown of larger-scale currents.

The focus of this oral sub-session is on interactions between submesoscale flows and turbulent mixing in the OSBL.

Co-Sponsor(s):
  • AI - Air-Sea Interactions
  • OB - Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry
  • OM - Ocean Modeling
Index Terms:

4504 Air/sea interactions [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4528 Fronts and jets [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Primary Chair:  Ivan B. Savelyev, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, United States
Co-chairs:  Gregory LeClaire Wagner, MIT, Cambridge, United States, Leah Johnson, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States and Qing Li, Brown University, Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Providence, United States; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
Primary Liaison:  Ivan B. Savelyev, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, United States
Moderators:  Leah Johnson, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, United States and Jacob O Wenegrat, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
Student Paper Review Liaisons:  Ivan B. Savelyev, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, United States and Leah Johnson, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, United States

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

PS13B-01
Global Geography of Submesoscale Density Fronts (647867)
Caitlin B Whalen, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, Kyla Drushka, University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States and Peter Gaube, Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington, Air-Sea Interaction and Remote Sensing, Seattle, WA, United States
PS13B-02
Direct Observations of Submesoscale Modulation of Ocean Surface Boundary Layer Turbulence (648037)
Andrey Y. Shcherbina, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States and Eric A. D'Asaro, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, United States
PS13B-03
Constraining the Surface Boundary-Layer Stratification Budget in the Eastern North Pacific Subtropical Front (651190)
John Mickett, University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, United States, Eric L Kunze, NorthWest Research Associates, Redmond, WA, United States, James B Girton, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States and J. Thomas Farrar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst, Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, United States
PS13B-04
Frontal Instability and Energy Dissipation in a Submesoscale Upwelling Filament (645572)
Jen-Ping Peng, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Physical Oceanography, Rostock, Germany, Peter Ludwig Holtermann, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Rostock, Germany and Lars Umlauf, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Warnemuende, Germany
PS13B-05
Impacts of centrifugal/inertial/symmetric instabilities on ocean fronts (652201)
Nicolas Grisouard and Varvara Zemskova, University of Toronto, Physics, Toronto, ON, Canada
PS13B-06
Equilibration of Symmetric Instability and Inertial Oscillations at a Finite-Width Submesoscale Front (644174)
Aaron Wienkers, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Leif N Thomas, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States and John Ryan Taylor, University of Cambridge, DAMTP, Cambridge, United Kingdom
PS13B-07
Simulation of Inertial Currents and Enhanced Mixing in Ocean Fronts (641101)
Eric D Skyllingstad, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States and Roger M Samelson, Oregon State Univ, Corvallis, OR, United States
PS13B-08
Langmuir Turbulence and Cold Filaments: Do they Couple? (643339)
Peter P Sullivan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Mesoscale Microscale Meteorology, Boulder, CO, United States, James C McWilliams, University of California in Los Angeles, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, United States and Baylor Fox-Kemper, Brown University, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Providence, RI, United States
See more of: Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller