Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation
Turbulent mixing produced by breaking of internal waves plays an important role in setting the patterns of downwelling and upwelling of deep dense waters and thereby helps sustain the global deep ocean overturning circulation. A key parameter used to characterize turbulent mixing is its efficiency,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118296 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1279-7593 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 |
| _version_ | 1826207905410449408 |
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| author | Salehipour, H. Bouffard, D. Caulfield, C. P. Nikurashin, M. Peltier, W. R. Smyth, W. D. Mashayekhi, Alireza Ferrari, Raffaele |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Salehipour, H. Bouffard, D. Caulfield, C. P. Nikurashin, M. Peltier, W. R. Smyth, W. D. Mashayekhi, Alireza Ferrari, Raffaele |
| author_sort | Salehipour, H. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Turbulent mixing produced by breaking of internal waves plays an important role in setting the patterns of downwelling and upwelling of deep dense waters and thereby helps sustain the global deep ocean overturning circulation. A key parameter used to characterize turbulent mixing is its efficiency, defined here as the fraction of the energy available to turbulence that is invested in mixing. Efficiency is conventionally approximated by a constant value near one sixth. Here we show that efficiency varies significantly in the abyssal ocean and can be as large as approximately one third in density stratified regions near topographic features. Our results indicate that variations in efficiency exert a first-order control over the rate of overturning of the lower branch of the meridional overturning circulation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:56:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/118296 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:56:48Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1182962022-10-01T18:11:11Z Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation Salehipour, H. Bouffard, D. Caulfield, C. P. Nikurashin, M. Peltier, W. R. Smyth, W. D. Mashayekhi, Alireza Ferrari, Raffaele Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Mashayekhi, Alireza Ferrari, Raffaele Turbulent mixing produced by breaking of internal waves plays an important role in setting the patterns of downwelling and upwelling of deep dense waters and thereby helps sustain the global deep ocean overturning circulation. A key parameter used to characterize turbulent mixing is its efficiency, defined here as the fraction of the energy available to turbulence that is invested in mixing. Efficiency is conventionally approximated by a constant value near one sixth. Here we show that efficiency varies significantly in the abyssal ocean and can be as large as approximately one third in density stratified regions near topographic features. Our results indicate that variations in efficiency exert a first-order control over the rate of overturning of the lower branch of the meridional overturning circulation. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-1233832) 2018-10-01T14:02:42Z 2018-10-01T14:02:42Z 2017-06 2016-12 2018-09-21T18:53:00Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0094-8276 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118296 Mashayek, A. et al. “Efficiency of Turbulent Mixing in the Abyssal Ocean Circulation.” Geophysical Research Letters 44, 12 (June 2017): 6296–6306 © 2017 American Geophysical Union https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1279-7593 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072452 Geophysical Research Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Salehipour, H. Bouffard, D. Caulfield, C. P. Nikurashin, M. Peltier, W. R. Smyth, W. D. Mashayekhi, Alireza Ferrari, Raffaele Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title | Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title_full | Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title_fullStr | Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title_short | Efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| title_sort | efficiency of turbulent mixing in the abyssal ocean circulation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118296 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1279-7593 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 |
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