Downscale transfer of quasigeostrophic energy catalyzed by near-inertial waves

Wind forcing injects energy into mesoscale eddies and near-inertial waves (NIWs) in the ocean, and the NIWs are believed to solve the puzzle of mesoscale energy budget by absorbing energy from mesoscale eddies. This work studies the turbulent energy transfer in the NIW–quasigeostrophic mean mesoscal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of fluid mechanics 2020-12, Vol.904, Article A40
Main Author: Xie, Jin-Han
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
Boussinesq approximation
Boussinesq equations
Computational fluid dynamics
Cyclones
Eddies
Eddy kinetic energy
Energy absorption
Energy budget
Energy conservation
Energy conversion
Energy dissipation
Energy transfer
Enstrophy
Filaments
Fluid flow
Gravity waves
Heuristic
Inertial waves
JFM Papers
Mathematical models
Mesoscale eddies
Mesoscale phenomena
Ocean circulation
Parameters
Phase transitions
Simulation
Two dimensional models
Velocity
Vortex filaments
Vortices
Vorticity
Wave action
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Summary:Wind forcing injects energy into mesoscale eddies and near-inertial waves (NIWs) in the ocean, and the NIWs are believed to solve the puzzle of mesoscale energy budget by absorbing energy from mesoscale eddies. This work studies the turbulent energy transfer in the NIW–quasigeostrophic mean mesoscale eddy coupled system based on a previously derived two-dimensional model which inherits conserved quantities in Boussinesq equations (Xie & Vanneste, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 774, 2015, pp. 147–169). The conservation of energy, potential enstrophy and wave action implies the existence of phase transition with a change of the relative strength between NIW and mean-flow, quantified by a parameter $R$. By running forced-dissipative numerical simulations, we justify the existence of second-order phase transition around a critical value $R_c$. When $0
ISSN:0022-1120
1469-7645
DOI:10.1017/jfm.2020.709