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Geophysical turbulence dominated by inertia–gravity waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2019

Jim Thomas Open the ORCID record for Jim Thomas [Opens in a new window]  and
Ray Yamada
Jim Thomas*
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA 02543, USA Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Ray Yamada
Affiliation:
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: jimthomas.edu@gmail.com
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Abstract

Recent evidence from both oceanic observations and global-scale ocean model simulations indicate the existence of regions where low-mode internal tidal energy dominates over that of the geostrophic balanced flow. Inspired by these findings, we examine the effect of the first vertical mode inertia–gravity waves on the dynamics of balanced flow using an idealized model obtained by truncating the hydrostatic Boussinesq equations on to the barotropic and the first baroclinic mode. On investigating the wave–balance turbulence phenomenology using freely evolving numerical simulations, we find that the waves continuously transfer energy to the balanced flow in regimes where the balanced-to-wave energy ratio is small, thereby generating small-scale features in the balanced fields. We examine the detailed energy transfer pathways in wave-dominated flows and thereby develop a generalized small Rossby number geophysical turbulence phenomenology, with the two-mode (barotropic and one baroclinic mode) quasi-geostrophic turbulence phenomenology being a subset of it. The present work therefore shows that inertia–gravity waves would form an integral part of the geophysical turbulence phenomenology in regions where balanced flow is weaker than gravity waves.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Geostrophic turbulence Geophysical and Geological Flows: Internal waves
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 875 , 25 September 2019 , pp. 71 - 100
Copyright
© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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