No abstract

Flows in the upper ocean mixed layer are responsible for the transport and dispersion of biogeochemical tracers, phytoplankton and buoyant pollutants, such as hydrocarbons from an oil spill. Material dispersion in mixed layer flows subject to diurnal buoyancy forcing and weak winds (|u 10 | = 5 ms −1) are investigated using a non-hydrostatic model. Both purely buoyancy-forced and combined wind-and buoyancy-forced flows are sampled using passive tracers, as well as 2D and 3D particles to explore characteristics of horizontal and vertical dispersion. It is found that the surface tracer patterns are determined by the convergence zones created by convection cells within a time scale of just a few hours. For pure convection, the results displayed the classic signature of Rayleigh-Benard cells. When combined with a wind stress, the convective cells become anisotropic in that the along-wind length scale gets much larger than the crosswind scale. Horizontal relative dispersion computed by sampling the flow fields using both 2D and 3D passive particles is found to be consistent with the Richardson regime. Relative dispersion is an order of magnitude higher and 2D surface releases transition to Richardson regime faster in the wind-forced case. We also show that the buoyancy-forced case results in significantly lower amplitudes of scale-dependent horizontal relative diffusivity, k D (ℓ), than those reported by Okubo (1970), while the wind-and buoyancy-forced case shows a good agreement with Okubo's diffusivity amplitude, and the scaling is consistent with Richardson's 4/3rd law, k D ∼ ℓ 4/3. These modeling results provide a framework for measuring material dispersion by mixed layer flows in future observational programs.

Barrier layers are generated when the surface mixed layer is shallower than the layer where temperature is well mixed, in geographical regions where salinity plays a key role in setting up upper-ocean density stratification. In the tropical oceans, thick barrier layers are also found in a latitude range where spiraling trajectories from surface in situ drifters suggest the presence of predominantly cyclonic submesoscale-like vortices. The authors explore these dynamical processes and their interplay in the present paper, focusing on the tropical South Atlantic Ocean and using a high-resolution modeling approach. The objective is threefold: to investigate the mean dynamics contributing to barrier-layer formation in this region, to study the distribution and seasonality of submesoscale features, and to verify whether and how the submesoscale impacts barrier-layer thickness. The model used is the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) in its Adaptive Grid Refinement in Fortran (AGRIF) online-nested configuration with a horizontal resolution ranging between 9 and 1 km. The simulated circulation is first described in terms of mean and submesoscale dynamics, and the associated seasonal cycle. Mechanisms for barrier-layer formation are then investigated. The results confirm previous hypotheses by Mignot et al. on the relevance of enhanced winter mixing deepening the isothermal layer, whereas the salinity stratification is sustained by advection of surface fresh waters and subsurface salinity maxima. Finally, submesoscale effects on barrier-layer thickness are studied, quantifying their contribution to vertical fluxes of temperature and salinity. Submesoscale vortices associated with salinity fronts are found to have a significant effect, producing thicker barrier layers (by ~20%–35%) and a shallower mixed layer because of their restratifying effect on salinity.

Position and velocity data are analyzed from a release of surface ocean drifters in the Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Sea in ice‐free conditions. Position information is returned at sufficiently high frequency to allow for the investigation of surface‐ocean flows ranging from around 0.5 km in lateral scale (submesoscale, SM, flows) to flows that are tens of kilometers in horizontal extent. Lagrangian statistics from the drifter release are analyzed in conjunction with Eulerian (ship‐based) measurements of surface ocean temperature and salinity. Results show dynamics that are largely consistent with flows at similar scales in the midlatitude oceans. Horizontal wavenumber k spectra of density in the surface ocean scale as k−2, consistent with energetic SM flows. Lagrangian drifters indicate local dispersion in the surface ocean layer at horizontal scales smaller than 10 km, which confirms the presence of active submesoscale dynamics. Features at these scales give rise to lateral diffusivities (in the range 1–103 m2 s−1) of similar range to values inferred in the midlatitudes. Velocity structure functions present an energy‐cascade inertial range at submesoscales with indication of a transition to a forward energy cascade at scales smaller than 1 km confirming the transition to 3‐D turbulence. The active SM flow‐field drives enhanced lateral and vertical fluxes in the Arctic Ocean mixed layer, which has first‐order implications to the transport of heat, sea‐ice floes, nutrients, and contaminants.

We present an analysis of ocean surface dispersion characteristics, on 1–100-m scales, obtained by optically tracking a release of [Formula: see text] bamboo plates for 2 h in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Under sustained 5–6 m s−1 winds, energetic Langmuir cells are clearly delineated in the spatially dense plate observations. Within 10 min of release, the plates collect in windrows with 15-m spacing aligned with the wind. Windrow spacing grows, through windrow merger, to 40 m after 20 min and then expands at a slower rate to 50 m. The presence of Langmuir cells produces strong horizontal anisotropy and scale dependence in all surface dispersion statistics computed from the plate observations. Relative dispersion in the crosswind direction initially dominates but eventually saturates, while downwind dispersion exhibits continual growth consistent with contributions from both turbulent fluctuations and organized mean shear. Longitudinal velocity differences in the crosswind direction indicate mean convergence at scales below the Langmuir cell diameter and mean divergence at larger scales. Although the second-order structure function measured by contemporaneous GPS-tracked surface drifters drogued at ~0.5 m shows persistent r2/3 power law scaling down to 100–200-m separation scales, the second-order structure function for the very near surface plates observations has considerably higher energy and significantly shallower slope at scales below 100 m. This is consistent with contemporaneous data from undrogued surface drifters and previously published model results indicating shallowing spectra in the presence of direct wind-wave forcing mechanisms.