Evidence for enhanced mixing over rough topography in the abyssal ocean

The overturning circulation of the ocean plays an important role in modulating the Earth's climate. But whereas the mechanisms for the vertical transport of water into the deep ocean--deep water formation at high latitudes--and horizontal transport in ocean currents have been largely identified, it is not clear how the compensating vertical transport of water from the depths to the surface is accomplished. Turbulent mixing across surfaces of constant density is the only viable mechanism for reducing the density of the water and enabling it to rise. However, measurements of the internal wave field, the main source of energy for mixing, and of turbulent dissipation rates, have typically implied diffusivities across surfaces of equal density of only approximately 0.1 cm2 s(-1), too small to account for the return flow. Here we report measurements of tracer dispersion and turbulent energy dissipation in the Brazil basin that reveal diffusivities of 2-4 cm2 s(-1) at a depth of 500 m above abyssal hills on the flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and approximately 10 cm2 s(-1) nearer the bottom. This amount of mixing, probably driven by breaking internal waves that are generated by tidal currents flowing over the rough bathymetry, may be large enough to close the buoyancy budget for the Brazil basin and suggests a mechanism for closing the global overturning circulation.     

River plumes as a source of large-amplitude internal waves in the coastal ocean

Satellite images have long revealed the surface expression of large amplitude internal waves that propagate along density interfaces beneath the sea surface. Internal waves are typically the most energetic high-frequency events in the coastal ocean, displacing water parcels by up to 100 m and generating strong currents and turbulence that mix nutrients into near-surface waters for biological utilization. While internal waves are known to be generated by tidal currents over ocean-bottom topography, they have also been observed frequently in the absence of any apparent tide-topography interactions. Here we present repeated measurements of velocity, density and acoustic backscatter across the Columbia River plume front. These show how internal waves can be generated from a river plume that flows as a gravity current into the coastal ocean. We find that the convergence of horizontal velocities at the plume front causes frontal growth and subsequent displacement downward of near-surface waters. Individual freely propagating waves are released from the river plume front when the front's propagation speed decreases below the wave speed in the water ahead of it. This mechanism generates internal waves of similar amplitude and steepness as internal waves from tide-topography interactions observed elsewhere, and is therefore important to the understanding of coastal ocean mixing.     

Numerical simulation of tides and tidal currents in Liaoning Bay with POM

A three-dimensional ocean circulation model, called Princeton Ocean Model (POM), is employed to simulate tides and tidal currents in Liaodong Bay. The nested grid technique is adopted to improve the computation precision. Computed harmonic constants of m1, M2 tides at five tidal gauge stations and surface elevations at two oil platforms are compared with those observed, and show good agreements with them. Based on the calculated results, the co-amplitude and co-phase lag lines of m1 and M2 tidal constituents, the residual current field of M2 constituent, tidal form, tidal current ellipse and the moving style of tidal current are given. It is found that diurnal tidal constituents have no amphidromic point whereas semi-diurnal constituents have one in the region of interest. Meanwhile, some meaningful results are concluded and presented, which are conducive to a thorough knowledge of the characteristics of tides and tidal currents in the Liaodong Bay.     

High mixing rates in the abyssal Southern Ocean

Mixing of water masses from the deep ocean to the layers above can be estimated from considerations of continuity in the global ocean overturning circulation. But averaged over ocean basins, diffusivity has been observed to be too small to account for the global upward flux of water, and high mixing intensities have only been found in the restricted areas close to sills and narrow gaps. Here we present observations from the Scotia Sea, a deep ocean basin between the Antarctic peninsula and the tip of South America, showing a high intensity of mixing that is unprecedented over such a large area. Using a budget calculation over the whole basin, we find a diffusivity of (39 plus minus 10) x 104[?]m2[?]s-1, averaged over an area of 7 x 105[?]km2. The Scotia Sea is a basin with a rough topography, situated just east of the Drake passage where the strong flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is constricted in width. The high basin-wide mixing intensity in this area of the Southern Ocean may help resolve the question of where the abyssal water masses are mixed towards the surface.     

FVCOM模型在渤海湾潮流潮汐模拟中的应用

浅海是潮运动占优的海域,潮汐、潮流对物质输运和水交换有重要影响．采用非结构有限体积近岸海洋模型（FVCOM）模拟渤海湾的三维潮汐潮流分布和变化规律,非结构网格能真实地拟合岸线,刻画出渤海湾的复杂岸线,能够较好地计算出渤海湾的潮汐潮流的时空分布特点,与实测值吻合较好．模拟的M,分潮振幅的平均方差为7．33cm,迟角的平均方差为11．53°．在渤海湾,M2分潮的最大振幅为120cm,湾内的迟角差为70°;渤海湾湾中潮余流较弱,流速在0—0．6cm／s．渤海湾是潮流较强的区域,海区的最大可能潮流流速超过100cm／s．     

珠江河口潮能及其耗散的空间分布

 基于SELFE的珠江河口3D数学模型,统计了珠江河网 河口湾的能量通量与能量耗散。从能通量和能耗分布特征看,珠江河口可以分为伶仃洋 虎门水域、磨刀门河口水域区、黄茅海 潭江水域、网河区水域。潮能通量与耗散特征与珠江口滩槽地形分布特征大体一致。上述各区域存在‘门’等高能耗局部地貌单元,其单位面积能耗比附近水域的高数倍甚至1～2个数量级。     

Observational evidence for an ocean heat pump induced by tropical cyclones

Ocean mixing affects global climate and the marine biosphere because it is linked to the ocean's ability to store and transport heat and nutrients. Observations have constrained the magnitude of upper ocean mixing associated with certain processes, but mixing rates measured directly are significantly lower than those inferred from budget analyses, suggesting that other processes may play an important role. The winds associated with tropical cyclones are known to lead to localized mixing of the upper ocean, but the hypothesis that tropical cyclones are important mixing agents at the global scale has not been tested. Here we calculate the effect of tropical cyclones on surface ocean temperatures by comparing surface temperatures before and after storm passage, and use these results to calculate the vertical mixing induced by tropical cyclone activity. Our results indicate that tropical cyclones are responsible for significant cooling and vertical mixing of the surface ocean in tropical regions. Assuming that all the heat that is mixed downwards is balanced by heat transport towards the poles, we calculate that approximately 15 per cent of peak ocean heat transport may be associated with the vertical mixing induced by tropical cyclones. Furthermore, our analyses show that the magnitude of this mixing is strongly related to sea surface temperature, indicating that future changes in tropical sea surface temperatures may have significant effects on ocean circulation and ocean heat transport that are not currently accounted for in climate models.     

Power requirement of the geodynamo from ohmic losses in numerical and laboratory dynamos

In the Earth's fluid outer core, a dynamo process converts thermal and gravitational energy into magnetic energy. The power needed to sustain the geomagnetic field is set by the ohmic losses (dissipation due to electrical resistance). Recent estimates of ohmic losses cover a wide range, from 0.1 to 3.5 TW, or roughly 0.3-10% of the Earth's surface heat flow. The energy requirement of the dynamo puts constraints on the thermal budget and evolution of the core through Earth's history. Here we use a set of numerical dynamo models to derive scaling relations between the core's characteristic dissipation time and the core's magnetic and hydrodynamic Reynolds numbers--dimensionless numbers that measure the ratio of advective transport to magnetic and viscous diffusion, respectively. The ohmic dissipation of the Karlsruhe dynamo experiment supports a simple dependence on the magnetic Reynolds number alone, indicating that flow turbulence in the experiment and in the Earth's core has little influence on its characteristic dissipation time. We use these results to predict moderate ohmic dissipation in the range of 0.2-0.5 TW, which removes the need for strong radioactive heating in the core and allows the age of the solid inner core to exceed 2.5 billion years.     

潮流能开发利用现状与关键科技问题研究综述

针对潮流能这一海洋可再生能源的热点问题,总结了潮流能资源的分布现状,梳理潮流能发电装置的分类,介绍了当前国内外主要的潮流能示范工程。从潮流能资源评估、潮流能装置的安全稳定、转换效率与多能互补、尾流效应、潮流能阵列发展及带来的环境问题等几个方面探讨潮流能发展中的关键科技问题,指出发展潮流能的可行性和必要性以及当前面临的问题和挑战。     

Oceanography. Vertical mixing in the ocean

The thermohaline circulation of the ocean results primarily from downwelling at sites in the Nordic and Labrador Seas and upwelling throughout the rest of the ocean. The latter is often described as being due to breaking internal waves. Here we reconcile the difference between theoretical and observed estimates of vertical mixing in the deep ocean by presenting a revised view of the thermohaline circulation, which allows for additional upwelling in the Southern Ocean and the separation of the North Atlantic Deep Water cell from the Antarctic Bottom Water cell. The changes also mean that much less wind and tidal energy needs to be dissipated in the deep ocean than was originally thought.     

Determination of solid Earth tide phase lag by satellite observation data

The geopotential variation caused by solid Earth, ocean and atmospheric tides can be estimated from artificial satellite orbit perturbations. It is shown that the total tidal variation in geopotential field derived from satellite tracking data, combined with the recent accurate measurements of ocean tide obtained by Topex/Poseidon and atmospheric tide model, permits the estimates of the solid earth tide phase lags for M2 and K1 constituents (respectively 0.12° and 0.13°). This result agrees rather well with the result 0.16° derived from satellite data by Ray and the constrained theoretical result 0.21° given by Zschau; whereas the results given by gravity tidal methods are rather scattering in the phase lag determination.     

海洋内波破碎及其能量耗散的研究进展

海洋内波是海洋中普遍存在的波动形式。它的不稳定和破碎会对海洋能量的再分配产生本质的影响,直接将能量从大尺度向小尺度过程传递,产生湍流混合。内波破碎产生的湍流混合又会显著地影响海洋环境。该文就近十五年来对内波的破碎机制以及内波破碎导致的能量耗散研究作一简要综述。     

Intense mixing of lower thermocline water on the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Buoyancy exchange between the deep and the upper ocean, which is essential for maintaining global ocean circulation, mainly occurs through turbulent mixing. This mixing is thought to result primarily from instability of the oceanic internal wave field, but internal waves tend to radiate energy away from the regions in which they are generated rather than dissipate it locally as turbulence and the resulting distribution of turbulent mixing remains unknown. Another, more direct, mixing mechanism involves the generation of turbulence as strong flows pass through narrow passages in topography, but the amount of turbulence generated at such locations remains poorly quantified owing to a lack of direct measurements. Here we present observations from the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean that suggest that passages in rift valleys and ridge-flank canyons provide the most energetic sites for oceanic turbulence. Our measurements show that diffusivities as large as 0.03 m2 s(-1) characterize the mixing downstream of a sill in a well-stratified boundary layer, with mixing levels remaining of the order of 10(-4) m2 s(-1) at the base of the main thermocline. These mixing rates are significantly higher than the diffusivities of the order of 10(-5) m2 s(-1) that characterize much of the global thermocline and the abyssal ocean. Our estimates suggest that overflows associated with narrow passages on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean produce as much buoyancy flux as has previously been estimated for the entire Romanche fracture zone, a large strait in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that connects the North and South Atlantic basins. This flux is equivalent to the interior mixing that occurs in the entire North Atlantic basin at the depth of the passages, suggesting that turbulence generated in narrow passages on mid-ocean ridges may be important for buoyancy flux at the global scale.     

烟台外海潮波的特征

在烟台外海,潮汐属于正规半日潮性质,而潮流属于日潮流性质.用数值模拟和实测潮流分析两种方法研究了该特征并解释造成这一现象的原因:在烟台外海M2分潮具有驻波振动,存在着M2分潮流的辐聚、辐散现象,因而该海域M2分潮流很小.该海域日分潮流没有辐聚、辐散现象,因而日分潮流相对较强,从而造成了该海域的潮汐、潮流性质相异的特殊现象.     

Redistribution of energy available for ocean mixing by long-range propagation of internal waves

Ocean mixing, which affects pollutant dispersal, marine productivity and global climate, largely results from the breaking of internal gravity waves--disturbances propagating along the ocean's internal stratification. A global map of internal-wave dissipation would be useful in improving climate models, but would require knowledge of the sources of internal gravity waves and their propagation. Towards this goal, I present here computations of horizontal internal-wave propagation from 60 historical moorings and relate them to the source terms of internal waves as computed previously. Analysis of the two most energetic frequency ranges--near-inertial frequencies and semidiurnal tidal frequencies--reveals that the fluxes in both frequency bands are of the order of 1 kW x m(-1) (that is, 15-50% of the energy input) and are directed away from their respective source regions. However, the energy flux due to near-inertial waves is stronger in winter, whereas the tidal fluxes are uniform throughout the year. Both varieties of internal waves can thus significantly affect the space-time distribution of energy available for global mixing.     

中国大陆境内的O1分波应变负荷潮

根据Schwideiski海潮图,本文根据作者提出的积分Green函数方法计算了全球海潮O_1分波在中国大陆产生的应变负荷潮,并绘制了应变负荷潮在中国大陆的分布图。分布图表明,中国大陆全境的O_1分波应变负荷潮受太平洋海潮的控制,在中国南部沿海地区南海海潮的作用非常显著,此处应变负荷潮的振幅可以接近甚至超过固体潮的振幅,即使在大陆西部内陆地区,负荷潮的振幅亦可达固体潮振幅的百分之几。要合理解释应变固体潮的观测结果,正确考虑负荷潮的影响是十分必要的。     

Influences of the surface wave-induced mixing and tidal mixing on the vertical temperature structure of the Yellow and East China Seas in summer

After a classification of the physical processes which affect the vertical mixing, diffusivity induced by the surface wave momentum and tidal currents and its influence on the vertical temperature structure are discussed. Based on three mixing schemes, the vertical temperature structure of the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS) is simulated. Results show that in summer, the surface wave-induced mixing plays a key role in forming the upper mixed layer in the YECS. The tidal mixing controls the lower layers within 30 m above the bottom, which is the main factor in forming the platform-shaped temperature structure in the southern Yellow Sea (YS). Together with the strong surface wave-induced mixing, the tidal mixing makes the thermocline ventilate near the east coast of the southern YS. The double cold cores in the deeper layers of the East China Sea have different causes. The western one is the maintenance of the winter cold water, while the eastern one is configured by circulation. The simulated vertical temperature structure of the YECS with the surface wave-induced mixing and tidal mixing has similar features to the observations, which indicates that these mixing processes are key factors in simulating the thermocline and pycnocline of the coastal oceans.     

Surface pollen distribution patterns in Beibu Gulf and corresponding sediment dynamics environment

The Beibu Gulf is a semi-enclosed gulf in the northwest of the South China Sea.We palynologically analyzed 306 surface sediment samples from the eastern Beibu Gulf to improve bioclimatic interpretation of fossil pollen records there.Surface pollen assemblages could be classified into five pollen regions based on the distributions of total,arboreal,herbaceous and fern pollen concentrations.Four high-concentration and three low-concentration subregions could be distinguished within these regions.The distribution patterns of surface pollen assemblages were consistent with those of grain sizes of surface sediments.Sediments from regions with high pollen concentrations were very fine and fine silts (>7.0,<0.008 mm),whereas those with low pollen concentrations were fine sand (<3.5,>0.088 mm).Sedimentary heterogeneity of surface pollen assemblages was closely related to pollen source,transportation and sedimentation controlled by ocean currents,tides and waves,and oceanic bottom topography.Fern spores exhibited higher percentages along the east margins of the region,while arboreal types like Pinus increased in concentration towards the center.Herbaceous pollen appeared in high percentages around seacoasts near their source areas.Dacrydium and mangrove pollen were distributed near their source regions at low percentages.We discuss the sediment dynamic environments in the eastern Beibu Gulf based on surface pollen distributions.The estuary region is an important access to the sea basin and a depositional site for terrestrial pollen grains.Coastal regions can accumulate pollen due to the back-and-forth movements of tides there.Although ocean currents on a gulf scale tend to spread pollen grains,the interaction of multiple currents could lead to pollen accumulation and deposition.Low surface pollen concentrations in the northeast shallow-water regions of the eastern Beibu Gulf could be attributed to repeated washing and sediment floatation caused by severe wave activities during the summer.Strong tides in Qiongzhou Strait frequently wash the seabed and disadvantage pollen deposition,leading to low surface pollen concentrations there.     

Simulation study on optimal currents and winds for the spaceborne SAR mapping of sea bottom topography

A simulation model for the radar backscattering cross section of the sea surface has been developed based on the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging mechanism of the sea bottom topography. The relationship between tidal currents, sea surface winds and the SAR mapping of the sea bottom topography has been analyzed using the results of the simulation. It is shown that the sea bottom topography can be observed by spaceborne SAR more easily at high current speeds. The optimal direction of the currents for mapping the sea bottom topography is the direction perpendicular to the bathymetric features while the direction parallel to the bathymetric features is the worst. The optimal range of wind speeds for mapping the sea bottom topography is between 3 and 9 m/s. The wind directions between 30° and 89° are preferred although the effect of the wind direction on SAR mapping of bottom topography is complicated.