Journal article
An energy- and enstrophy-constrained parameterization of barotropic eddy potential vorticity fluxes
- Abstract:
- A parameterization for barotropic eddy potential vorticity (PV) fluxes is introduced which applies both an energetic and an enstrophetic constraint to a down-gradient PV mixing closure. An eddy kinetic energy budget and an eddy potential enstrophy budget are employed to constrain the parameterized eddy PV fluxes. Through the budgets, the parameterization facilitates a bidirectional exchange of kinetic energy between the parameterized eddies and the large-scale flow, and a conversion of potential enstrophy from the large-scale flow to the parameterized eddies. The parameterization is tested in simulations of barotropic, freely-decaying turbulence in a doubly periodic domain over variable bottom topography. The simulations show that employing the parameterization results in an upscale transfer of kinetic energy emerges on average, consistent with quasigeostrophic theory. Furthermore, the kinetic energy and potential enstrophy budgets employed are sufficient to constrain the large-scale flow in a realistic manner when compared to an eddy-resolving model. As a result, a topography-following flow of the correct magnitude emerges in a coarse-resolution model with parameterized eddy effects. Dissipation in the coarse-resolution simulations is significant, leading to the most significant source of discrepancy between the coarse resolution simulation with parameterized eddy effects and the eddy-resolving simulation. This work constitutes a first step towards the ultimate aim of parameterizing both baroclinic and barotropic turbulence. How this may be achieved by integrating this parameterization with other methods in more realistic ocean simulations is discussed.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 33.8MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1175/JPO-D-24-0027.1
Authors
+ Natural Environment Research Council
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/02b5d8509
- Grant:
- NE/S007474/1
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Journal:
- Journal of Physical Oceanography More from this journal
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 5
- Pages:
- 573–591
- Publication date:
- 2025-05-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-02-05
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1520-0485
- ISSN:
-
0022-3670
- Language:
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English
- Pubs id:
-
2091539
- Local pid:
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pubs:2091539
- Deposit date:
-
2025-02-24
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Eaves et al
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the American Meteorological Society. This is an Author Accepted Manuscript distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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