The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean
Understanding of the major sources, sinks, and reservoirs of energy in the ocean is briefly updated in a diagram. The nature of the dominant kinetic energy reservoir, that of the balanced variablity, is then found to be indistinguishable in the observations from a sum of barotropic and first barocli...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Co-Action Publishing
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89050 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 |
| _version_ | 1826202923445518336 |
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| author | Ferrari, Raffaele Wunsch, Carl Isaac |
| 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 Ferrari, Raffaele Wunsch, Carl Isaac |
| author_sort | Ferrari, Raffaele |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Understanding of the major sources, sinks, and reservoirs of energy in the ocean is briefly updated in a diagram. The nature of the dominant kinetic energy reservoir, that of the balanced variablity, is then found to be indistinguishable in the observations from a sum of barotropic and first baroclinic ordinary quasi-geostrophic modes. Little supporting evidence is available to partition the spectra among forced motions and turbulent cascades, along with significant energy more consistent with weakly non-linear wave dynamics. Linear-response wind-forced motions appear to dominate the high frequency (but subinertial) mooring frequency spectra. Turbulent cascades appear to fill the high wavenumber spectra in altimetric data and numerical simulations. Progress on these issues is hindered by the difficulty in connecting the comparatively easily available frequency spectra with the variety of theoretically predicted wavenumber spectra. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:26:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/89050 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:26:55Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Co-Action Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/890502024-05-15T02:21:28Z The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean Ferrari, Raffaele Wunsch, Carl Isaac Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Ferrari, Raffaele Wunsch, Carl Understanding of the major sources, sinks, and reservoirs of energy in the ocean is briefly updated in a diagram. The nature of the dominant kinetic energy reservoir, that of the balanced variablity, is then found to be indistinguishable in the observations from a sum of barotropic and first baroclinic ordinary quasi-geostrophic modes. Little supporting evidence is available to partition the spectra among forced motions and turbulent cascades, along with significant energy more consistent with weakly non-linear wave dynamics. Linear-response wind-forced motions appear to dominate the high frequency (but subinertial) mooring frequency spectra. Turbulent cascades appear to fill the high wavenumber spectra in altimetric data and numerical simulations. Progress on these issues is hindered by the difficulty in connecting the comparatively easily available frequency spectra with the variety of theoretically predicted wavenumber spectra. National Oceanographic Partnership Program (U.S.) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award OCE-0849233) 2014-08-26T13:36:24Z 2014-08-26T13:36:24Z 2010-03 2009-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 02806495 16000870 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89050 FERRARI, RAFFAELE, and CARL WUNSCH. “The Distribution of Eddy Kinetic and Potential Energies in the Global Ocean.” Tellus A 62, no. 2 (March 2010): 92–108. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00432.x Tellus A Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Co-Action Publishing Co-Action Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Ferrari, Raffaele Wunsch, Carl Isaac The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title | The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title_full | The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title_fullStr | The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title_full_unstemmed | The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title_short | The distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| title_sort | distribution of eddy kinetic and potential energies in the global ocean |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89050 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 |
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