The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet
View / Open Files
Authors
Stamper, MA
Taylor, JR
Fox-Kemper, B
Publication Date
2018Journal Title
Journal of Physical Oceanography
ISSN
0022-3670
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Volume
48
Issue
11
Pages
2779-2797
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Stamper, M., Taylor, J., & Fox-Kemper, B. (2018). The growth and saturation of submesoscale instabilities in the presence of a barotropic jet. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48 (11), 2779-2797. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0022.1
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Motivated by recent observations of submesoscales in the Southern Ocean, we use nonlinear numerical simulations and a linear stability analysis to examine the influence of a barotropic jet on submesoscale instabilities at an isolated front. Simulations of the nonhydrostatic Boussinesq equations with a strong barotropic jet (approximately matching the observed conditions) show that submesoscale disturbances and strong vertical velocities are confined to a small region near the initial frontal location. In contrast, without a barotropic jet, submesoscale eddies propagate to the edges of the computational domain and smear the mean frontal structure. Several intermediate jet strengths are also considered. A linear stability analysis reveals that the barotropic jet has a modest influence on the growth rate of linear disturbances to the initial conditions, with at most a ~20% reduction in the growth rate of the most unstable mode. On the other hand, a basic state formed by averaging the flow at the end of the simulation with a strong barotropic jet is linearly stable, suggesting that nonlinear processes modify the mean flow and stabilize the front.</jats:p>
Keywords
Fronts, Instability, Nonhydrostatic models
Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J010472/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0022.1
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286678
Rights
Licence:
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.
Recommended or similar items
The current recommendation prototype on the Apollo Repository will be turned off on 03 February 2023. Although the pilot has been fruitful for both parties, the service provider IKVA is focusing on horizon scanning products and so the recommender service can no longer be supported. We recognise the importance of recommender services in supporting research discovery and are evaluating offerings from other service providers. If you would like to offer feedback on this decision please contact us on: support@repository.cam.ac.uk