Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[3];
[4]
- 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)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE; Australian Research Council; National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada; UNSW Silverstar Research; Australian Commonwealth Government.
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1866942
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-18-30922
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; DE120102927; 22R23085
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 49; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Barthel, Alice, Hogg, Andrew M., Waterman, Stephanie, and Keating, Shane. Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1029/2021gl097491.
Barthel, Alice, Hogg, Andrew M., Waterman, Stephanie, & Keating, Shane. Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl097491
Barthel, Alice, Hogg, Andrew M., Waterman, Stephanie, and Keating, Shane. Sat .
"Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl097491. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1866942.
@article{osti_1866942,
title = {Baroclinic Control of Southern Ocean Eddy Upwelling Near Topography},
author = {Barthel, Alice and Hogg, Andrew M. and Waterman, Stephanie and Keating, Shane},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1029/2021gl097491},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 7,
volume = 49,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Mar 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Sat Mar 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
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