Available Potential Energy for the Tourbillon Eddy: A Tentative Energy Budget from the CTD Mesoscale Arrays

Abstract

Abstract Using the technique developed by Bray and Fofonoff, an estimation is made of the available potential energy (APE) stored in the North Atlantic domain which was intensively explored during the TOURBILLON experiment in September–October 1979. This technique allows an accurate determination of the topography of the material surfaces along which adiabatic displacements of fluid elements are assumed to take place. An illustration is given where the scale of the surveyed eddy, and the advection of Mediterranean water at mid-depth around it, appear clearly. Vertical profiles of APE were computed for each of the four occasions when the CTD army was surveyed. The shape of the profiles is very similar to the MODE one, except for a pressure shift of the main maximum, and an additional peak above the main thermocline which is interpreted as the signature of the eddy at this level (300–400 db). The total APE computed through an integration of the APE profiles over the depth range 300–3000 db is compared with ...