The diapycnal mixing in the upper Pacific estimated from GTSPP observations

• Published in: Acta oceanologica Sinica 2016, Vol.35 (1), p.46-52
• Main Authors: Deng, Zeng’an, Wei, Guanghao, Yu, Ting, Wei, Hongyu, Kang, Linchong, Han, Luyao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bed roughness; Climatology; Computer centers; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Environmental Chemistry; Equator; Fracture zones; Global temperatures; Information services; Marine; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; M估计; Ocean circulation; Oceanography; Parameterization; Quality control; Salinity; Salinity profiles; Seasonal variation; Seasonal variations; 东北太平洋; 分布格局; 季节变化; 数据网格; 混合; 糖尿病; 观测计划
• ISSN: 0253-505X; 1869-1099
• DOI: 10.1007/s13131-016-0795-z

Diapycnal mixing （DM） in the upper 600 m of the Pacific Ocean was estimated based on the huge amount of the observations from Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Programme （GTSPP）, using the strain version of the finescale parameterization. It is found that DM in each season exhibits similar distribution pattern, but differs in details. The intensification of DM is related to bottom roughness, surface near-inertial energy, and proximity to the equator. The intensified DM caused by rough topography shows in the profiles near the Mendocino fracture zone in the northeast Pacific, and the heightened DM caused by wind-generated near-inertial energy appears in the westerly region of the Southern Ocean. As compared to previous estimates, the DM estimate in this work has better spatial coverage and finer resolution, and more importantly it contains the seasonal variability, Furthermore, the resulting DM dataset is gridded, rendering it suitable for modeling applications.