Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model

Abstract Motivated by the importance of mixing arising from dissipating internal waves (IWs), vertical profiles of internal‐wave dissipation from a high‐resolution regional ocean model are compared with finestructure estimates made from observations. A horizontal viscosity scheme restricted to only...

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Main Authors: Joseph Skitka, Brian K. Arbic, Yuchen Ma, Kayhan Momeni, Yulin Pan, William R. Peltier, Dimitris Menemenlis, Ritabrata Thakur
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-09-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108039
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author Joseph Skitka
Brian K. Arbic
Yuchen Ma
Kayhan Momeni
Yulin Pan
William R. Peltier
Dimitris Menemenlis
Ritabrata Thakur
author_facet Joseph Skitka
Brian K. Arbic
Yuchen Ma
Kayhan Momeni
Yulin Pan
William R. Peltier
Dimitris Menemenlis
Ritabrata Thakur
author_sort Joseph Skitka
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Motivated by the importance of mixing arising from dissipating internal waves (IWs), vertical profiles of internal‐wave dissipation from a high‐resolution regional ocean model are compared with finestructure estimates made from observations. A horizontal viscosity scheme restricted to only act on horizontally rotational modes (such as eddies) is introduced and tested. At lower resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of 2 km, the modeled IW dissipation from numerical model agrees reasonably well with observations in some cases when the restricted form of horizontal viscosity is used. This suggests the possibility that if restricted forms of horizontal viscosity are adopted by global models with similar resolutions, they could be used to diagnose and map IW dissipation distributions. At higher resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of ∼250 m, the dissipation from vertical shear and horizontal viscosity act much more strongly resulting in dissipation overestimates; however, the vertical‐shear dissipation itself is found to agree well with observations.
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series Geophysical Research Letters
spelling doaj-art-31cbefe5f3144da49de9f07c22a5a3c82025-08-20T02:10:39ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072024-09-015117n/an/a10.1029/2023GL108039Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean ModelJoseph Skitka0Brian K. Arbic1Yuchen Ma2Kayhan Momeni3Yulin Pan4William R. Peltier5Dimitris Menemenlis6Ritabrata Thakur7Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USADepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USADepartment of Physics University of Toronto Toronto ON CanadaDepartment of Physics University of Toronto Toronto ON CanadaDepartment of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USADepartment of Physics University of Toronto Toronto ON CanadaJet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USADepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USAAbstract Motivated by the importance of mixing arising from dissipating internal waves (IWs), vertical profiles of internal‐wave dissipation from a high‐resolution regional ocean model are compared with finestructure estimates made from observations. A horizontal viscosity scheme restricted to only act on horizontally rotational modes (such as eddies) is introduced and tested. At lower resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of 2 km, the modeled IW dissipation from numerical model agrees reasonably well with observations in some cases when the restricted form of horizontal viscosity is used. This suggests the possibility that if restricted forms of horizontal viscosity are adopted by global models with similar resolutions, they could be used to diagnose and map IW dissipation distributions. At higher resolutions with horizontal grid spacings of ∼250 m, the dissipation from vertical shear and horizontal viscosity act much more strongly resulting in dissipation overestimates; however, the vertical‐shear dissipation itself is found to agree well with observations.https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108039internal wavesregional ocean modelsdissipation
spellingShingle Joseph Skitka
Brian K. Arbic
Yuchen Ma
Kayhan Momeni
Yulin Pan
William R. Peltier
Dimitris Menemenlis
Ritabrata Thakur
Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
Geophysical Research Letters
internal waves
regional ocean models
dissipation
title Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
title_full Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
title_fullStr Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
title_full_unstemmed Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
title_short Internal‐Wave Dissipation Mechanisms and Vertical Structure in a High‐Resolution Regional Ocean Model
title_sort internal wave dissipation mechanisms and vertical structure in a high resolution regional ocean model
topic internal waves
regional ocean models
dissipation
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108039
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AT kayhanmomeni internalwavedissipationmechanismsandverticalstructureinahighresolutionregionaloceanmodel
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