FN Archimer Export Format
PT J
TI Surface kinetic energy transfer in surface quasi-geostrophic flows
BT 
AF CAPET, Xavier
   KLEIN, Patrice
   HUA, Bach-Lien
   LAPEYRE, Guillaume
   MCWILLIAMS, James C
AS 1:1;2:2;3:2;4:3;5:1;
FF 1:;2:;3:PDG-DOP-DCB-OPS-LPO;4:;5:;
C1 Univ Calif Los Angeles, Inst Geophys & Planetary Phys, Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA.
   CNRS, IFREMER, Lab Phys Oceans, Plouzane, France.
   CNRS, Ecole Normale Super, IPSL, Meteorol Dynam Lab, Paris, France.
   IFREMER, Lab Phys Oceans, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
C2 UNIV CALIF LOS ANGELES, USA
   CNRS, FRANCE
   ENS, FRANCE
   IFREMER, FRANCE
SI BREST
SE PDG-DOP-DCB-OPS-LPO
IN WOS Ifremer jusqu'en 2018
   copubli-france
   copubli-int-hors-europe
IF 2.315
TC 76
UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2008/publication-4623.pdf
LA English
DT Article
AB The relevance of surface quasi-geostrophic dynamics (SQG) to the upper ocean and the atmospheric tropopause has been recently demonstrated in a wide range of conditions. Within this context, the properties of SQG in terms of kinetic energy (KE) transfers at the surface are revisited and further explored. Two well-known and important properties of SQG characterize the surface dynamics: (i) the identity between surface velocity and density spectra (when appropriately scaled) and (ii) the existence of a forward cascade for surface density variance. Here we show numerically and analytically that (i) and (ii) do not imply a forward cascade of surface KE (through the advection term in the KE budget). On the contrary, advection by the geostrophic flow primarily induces an inverse cascade of surface KE on a large range of scales. This spectral flux is locally compensated by a KE source that is related to surface frontogenesis. The subsequent spectral budget resembles those exhibited by more complex systems (primitive equations or Boussinesq models) and observations, which strengthens the relevance of SQG for the description of ocean/atmosphere dynamics near vertical boundaries. The main weakness of SQG however is in the small-scale range (scales smaller than 20-30 km in the ocean) where it poorly represents the forward KE cascade observed in non-QG numerical simulations.
PY 2008
PD JUL
SO Journal of fluid mechanics
SN 0022-1120
PU Cambridge univ. Press
VL 604
UT 000257043200007
BP 165
EP 174
DI 10.1017/S0022112008001110
ID 4623
ER

EF