Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography

Barthel, Alice; Hogg, Andrew M.; Waterman, Stephanie; Keating, Shane

doi:10.1029/2021gl097491

Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography

Journal Article · Sat Mar 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl097491· OSTI ID:1866942

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia)

In the Southern Ocean, mesoscale eddies contribute to the upwelling of deep waters along sloping isopycnals, helping to close the upper branch of the meridional overturning circulation. Eddy energy (EE) is not uniformly distributed along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Instead, “hotspots” of EE that are associated with enhanced eddy-induced upwelling exist downstream of topographic features. This study shows that, in idealized eddy-resolved simulations, a topographic feature in the ACC path can enhance and localize eddy-induced upwelling. However, the upwelling systematically occurs in regions where eddies grow through baroclinic instability, rather than in regions where EE is large. Across a range of parameters, along-stream eddy growth rate is a more reliable indicator of eddy upwelling than traditional parameterizations such as eddy kinetic energy, eddy potential energy, or isopycnal slope. Ocean eddy parameterizations should consider metrics specific to the growth of baroclinic instability to accurately model eddy upwelling near topography.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Australian Commonwealth Government.; Australian Research Council; National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada; UNSW Silverstar Research; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1866942

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-30922

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 49; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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