Impact of parameterized lee wave drag on the energy budget of an eddying global ocean model

Abstract

The impact of parameterized topographic internal lee wave drag on the input and output terms in the total mechanical energy budget of a hybrid coordinate high-resolution global ocean general circulation model forced by winds and air-sea buoyancy fluxes is examined here. Wave drag, which parameterizes the generation of internal lee waves arising from geostrophic flow impinging upon rough topography, is included in the prognostic model, ensuring that abyssal currents and stratification in the model are affected by the wave drag.An inline mechanical (kinetic plus gravitational potential) energy budget including four dissipative terms (parameterized topographic internal lee wave drag, quadratic bottom boundary layer drag, vertical eddy viscosity, and horizontal eddy viscosity) demonstrates that wave drag dissipates less energy in the model than a diagnostic (offline) estimate would suggest, due to reductions in both the abyssal currents and stratification. The equator experiences the largest reduction in energy dissipation associated with wave drag in inline versus offline estimates. Quadratic bottom drag is the energy sink most affected globally by the presence of wave drag in the model; other energy sinks are substantially affected locally, but not in their global integrals. It is suggested that wave drag cannot be mimicked by artificially increasing the quadratic bottom drag because the energy dissipation rates associated with bottom drag are not spatially correlated with those associated with wave drag where the latter are small. Additionally, in contrast to bottom drag, wave drag is a non-local energy sink.All four aforementioned dissipative terms contribute substantially to the total energy dissipation rate of about one terawatt. The partial time derivative of potential energy (non-zero since the isopycnal depths have a long adjustment time), the surface advective fluxes of potential energy, the rate of change of potential energy due to diffusive mass fluxes, and the conversion between internal energy and potential energy also play a non-negligible role in the total mechanical energy budget. Reasons for the <10% total mechanical energy budget imbalance are discussed.