Understanding and parametrizing downscaling and mixing analyses from altimeter-derived oceanic currents
Abstract
Ocean eddies play an important role in the transport of heat, salt, nutrients or pollutants. During a finite-time advection, the gradients of these tracers can increase or decrease, depending on finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE). Numerous studies on mixing and/or tracer downscaling methods rely on satellite altimeter-derived ocean velocities. Filtering most oceanic small-scale eddies, those resulting Eulerian velocities are often stationary during the characteristic time of tracer gradient growth (∼ 1 week). Using finite-time advections, the averaged tracer gradients can then only increase.
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