Submesoscale Processes
Collaborators: James McWilliams (UCLA), Delphine Hypolite (UCLA), Jeroen Molemaker (UCLA), Lenoel Romero (University of Connecticut), Kaushik Srinivasan (UCLA)
Submesoscale currents are relevant to a variety of oceanic processes and arise in both the coastal and open-ocean. These turbulent currents, 0.01 - 1 km in lateral scale, mainly reside in the surface boundary layer as density fronts and filaments or vortices. The localized overturning circulation of submesoscale fronts and filaments, in a departure from the rotationally dominated geostrophic balance more typical of the mesoscale, exhibit extreme surface convergence and downwelling capable of re-stratifying the surface boundary layer and governing the fate and transport of upper-ocean material.
While much of my work has focused on these currents in the coastal ocean, I also investigate more general aspects of submesoscale circulation applicable to coastal and open-ocean regimes, often through the lens of idealized simulations. This work includes discovery and elucidation of the transient response of front and filament circulation to diurnal atmospheric forcing (see video to the lower right). Present and future work investigates the interactions between submesoscale fronts, surface gravity waves, internal waves, and transient atmospheric forcing in the open-ocean and on the shelf. Related Papers
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Below: Surface relative vorticity (normalized by the Coriolis parameter) in a hindcast simulation of the Southern California Bight (dx=100 m). Note the prevalence of submesocale vortices, fronts, and filaments with large cyclonic (positive vorticity). Also note mesoscale features, such as the larger-scale, more weakly cyclonic eddies in the Santa Barbara Channel. Visualization by Delphine Hypolite.
Below: Idealized simulation of the transient turbulent thermal wind (TTTW) system for a dense filament undergoing diurnal heating and cooling
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