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| Titel |
Reduction of Near-Inertial Energy by Ocean-Surface-Velocity-Dependent Wind Stress |
| VerfasserIn |
Willi Rath, Richard Greatbatch, Xiaoming Zhai |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250077418
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| Zusammenfassung |
| This study aims at understanding the effect of including or neglecting the
surface velocity of the ocean into the wind stress parameterization for the
strength and distribution of near-inertial oscillations. Wind-generated
near-inertial oscillations are an important source of energy for surface mixed
layer deepening as well as for internal wave breaking and the associated
diapycnal mixing at depth which, in turn, is thought to be important for
driving the meridional overturning circulation.
By using a realistic primitive equation model of the Southern Ocean at eddying
resolution, we find that including ocean surface velocities into the wind
stress leads to a large reduction of both wind power input into near-inertial
oscillations (WPI) and near-inertial energy (NIE) in the surface mixed layer.
The relative reduction of WPI can be as large as 30 percent and the relative
reduction of NIE can be as large as 50 percent.
Using both, the primitive equation model and a simple linear local slab-ocean
model for illustration, we find that a large part of this reduction can be
explained by the leading order modification to the wind stress if ocean surface
velocities are included. We also find that the strength of the reduction is
modulated by the inverse of the ocean surface mixed layer depth. |
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