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Title: The KPP boundary layer scheme for the ocean: revisiting its formulation and benchmarking one-dimensional simulations relative to LES

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [2];  [1];  [4]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab., Princeton, NJ (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
  3. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Lab.
  4. Leibniz Inst. for Baltic Sea Research, Rostock (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We evaluate the Community ocean Vertical Mixing (CVMix) project version of the K-profile parameterization (KPP) for modeling upper ocean turbulent mixing. For this purpose, one-dimensional KPP simulations are compared across a suite of oceanographically relevant regimes against horizontally averaged large eddy simulations (LES). We find the standard configuration of KPP consistent with LES across many forcing regimes, supporting its physical basis. Our evaluation also motivates recommendations for KPP “best practices” within ocean circulation models, and identifies areas where further research is warranted. The original treatment of KPP recommends the matching of interior diffusivities and their gradients to the KPP predicted values computed in the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL). However, we find that difficulties in representing derivatives of rapidly changing diffusivities near the base of the OSBL can lead to loss of simulation fidelity. To mitigate this difficulty, we propose and evaluate two computationally simpler approaches: (1) match to the internal predicted diffusivity alone, (2) set the KPP diffusivity to zero at the OSBL base. We find the KPP entrainment buoyancy flux to be sensitive to vertical grid resolution and details of how to diagnose the KPP boundary layer depth. We modify the KPP turbulent shear velocity parameterization to reduce resolution dependence. Additionally, an examination of LES vertical turbulent scalar flux budgets shows that the KPP parameterized non-local tracer flux is incomplete due to the assumption that it solely redistributes the surface tracer flux. This result motivates further studies of the non-local flux parameterization.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF) (United States); Princeton Univ. (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; AC05-00OR22725; SC0012605
OSTI ID:
1475346
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1480901; OSTI ID: 1480902
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--16-26992
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 10; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Global Impacts of Subseasonal (<60 Day) Wind Variability on Ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth journal December 2019
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
KPP
vertical mixing
ocean surface boundary layer
parameterization
ocean model