Abstract
The input of mechanical power to the ocean due to the surface wind stress, in regions which correspond to different regimes of ocean dynamics, is considered using data from satellites observations. Its dependence on the coarse-graining range of the atmospheric and oceanic velocity in space from 0.5 to 10∘ and time from 6 h to 40 days is determined. In the area of the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio extensions, the dependence of the power input on space-time coarse-graining varies over tenfold for the coarse-graining considered. It decreases over twofold for the Gulf Stream extension and threefold for the Kuroshio extension, when the coarse-graining length scale passes from a few degrees to 0.5∘ at a temporal coarse-graining scale of a few days. It increases over threefold in the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio extensions when the coarse-graining passes from several days to 6 h at a spatial coarse-graining of a few degrees. The power input is found to increase monotonically with shorter coarse-graining in time. Its variation with coarse-graining in space has no definite sign. Results show that including the dynamics at scales below a few degrees reduces considerably the power input by air-sea interaction in regions of strongly nonlinear ocean currents. When the ocean velocities are not considered in the shear calculation, the power input is considerably (up to threefold) increased. The dependence of the power input on coarse-graining in space and time is close to being multiplicatively separable in all regions and for most of the coarse-graining domain considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akuetevi CQC, Wirth A (2015) . Ocean Sci 11:471–481
Alexander MA, Bladé I, Newman M, Lanzante JR, Lau NC, Scott JD (2002) . J Climate 15(16):2205
Aluie H, Hecht M, Vallis GK (2018) . J Phys Oceanogr 48(2):225
Bentamy A, Grodsky SA, Elyouncha A, Chapron B, Desbiolles F (2017) . Int J Climatol 37(2):870
Bjerknes J (1964) . Adv Geophys 10:1–82
Bonjean F, Lagerloef GS (2002) . J Phys Oceanogr 32(10):2938
Csanady GT (2001) Air-sea interaction: laws and mechanisms. Cambridge University Press
Desbiolles F, Bentamy A, Blanke B, Roy C, Mestas-Nuñez AM, Grodsky SA, Herbette S, Cambon G, Maes C (2017) . J Mar Syst 168:38
Duhaut TH, Straub DN (2006) . J Phys Oceanogr 36(2):202
Ferrari R, Wunsch C (2009) Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 41
Flexas MM, Thompson AF, Torres HS, Klein P, Farrar JT, Zhang H, Menemenlis D (2019) . J Geophys ResOceans 124(8):5723
Gersten K, et al. (2017) Boundary-layer theory. Springer
Hurrell JW, Kushnir Y, Ottersen G, Visbeck M (2003) . Geophys Monograph-Am Geophys Union 134:1
Klein P, Lapeyre G, Siegelman L, Qiu B, Fu LL, Torres H, Su Z, Menemenlis D, Le Gentil S (2019) . Earth Space Sci 6(5):795
Melville WK (1996) . Ann Rev Fluid Mech 28(1):279
Moulin A, Wirth A (2014) . J Phys Oceanogr 44(2):733
O’Rourke AK, Arbic BK, Griffies SM (2018) . J Clim 31(5):1789
Renault L, McWilliams JC, Masson S (2017) . Sci Rep 7(1):17747
Rimac A, Storch JS, Eden C (2016) . J Phys Oceanogr 46(6):1885
Rimac A, von Storch JS, Eden C, Haak H (2013) . Geophys Res Lett 40(18):4882
Rio MH, Mulet S, Picot N (2014) . Geophys Res Lett 41(24):8918
Roquet F, Wunsch C, Madec G (2011) . J Phys Oceanogr 41(12): 2328
Scott RB, Xu Y (2009) . Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 56(3):295
Stern ME (1975) Ocean circulation physics, vol 19. Academic Press
Stull RB (2012) An introduction to boundary layer meteorology, vol 13. Springer Science & Business Media
Sudre J, Maes C, Garçon V (2013) . Limnology and Oceanography: Fluids and Environments 3(1):1
Vallis GK (2017) Atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics. Cambridge University Press
Veron F (2015) . Annu Rev Fluid Mech 47:507
Wirth A (2018) . J Phys Oceanogr 48(4):831
Wirth A (2019) . Nonlinear Processes Geophys 26(4):457
Zhai X, Johnson HL, Marshall DP, Wunsch C (2012) . J Phys Oceanogr 42(8):1357
Acknowledgments
These data were provided by the Centre de Recherche et d Exploitation Satellitaire (CERSAT), at IFREMER, Plouzane (France) and CMEMS. Part of this work was performed when AW visited LOPS, Brest. We are grateful to Abderrahim Bentamy for explanation concerning the data and Mickael Accensi and Jean-Fancois Piolle for help with the data analysis.
Funding
This work was funded by Labex OASUG@2020 (Investissement d’avenir - ANR10 LABX56).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Dirk Olbers
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wirth, A. Determining the dependence of the power supply to the ocean on the length and time scales of the dynamics between the meso-scale and the synoptic scale, from satellite data. Ocean Dynamics 71, 439–445 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-020-01439-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-020-01439-4