Impact of Enhanced Wave-Induced Mixing on the Ocean Upper Mixed Layer during Typhoon Nepartak in a Regional Model of the Northwest Pacific Ocean

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-09, Vol.12 (17), p.2808
• Main Authors: Yu, Chengcheng, Yang, Yongzeng, Yin, Xunqiang, Sun, Meng, Shi, Yongfang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boundary conditions; Computer simulation; Cooling; Cooling effects; Cyclones; Fluctuations; Flux; Northwest Pacific Ocean; Ocean circulation; Ocean models; Remote sensing; Residues; Salinity; Sea surface temperature; Tropical cyclones; Turbulence; Turbulence models; typhoon; Typhoons; upper mixed layer; Upper ocean; wave transport flux residue; wave-induced turbulence mixing
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs12172808

To investigate the effect of wave-induced mixing on the upper ocean structure, especially under typhoon conditions, an ocean-wave coupled model is used in this study. Two physical processes, wave-induced turbulence mixing and wave transport flux residue, are introduced. We select tropical cyclone (TC) Nepartak in the Northwest Pacific ocean as a TC example. The results show that during the TC period, the wave-induced turbulence mixing effectively increases the cooling area and cooling amplitude of the sea surface temperature (SST). The wave transport flux residue plays a positive role in reproducing the distribution of the SST cooling area. From the intercomparisons among experiments, it is also found that the wave-induced turbulence mixing has an important effect on the formation of mixed layer depth (MLD). The simulated maximum MLD is increased to 54 m and is only 1 m less than the observed value. The wave transport flux residue shows a dominant role in the mixed layer temperature (MLT) changing. The mean error of the MLT is reduced by 0.19 °C compared with the control experiment without wave mixing effects. The study shows that the effect of wave mixing should be included in the upper ocean structure modeling.