Abstract
AbstractThere have been recent advancements in the quantification of parameters describing the proportion of internal tide energy being dissipated locally and the “efficiency” of diapycnal mixing, that is, the ratio of the diapycnal mixing rate to the kinetic energy dissipation rate. We show that oceanic tidal mixing is nontrivially sensitive to the covariation of these parameters. Varying these parameters one at a time can lead to significant errors in the patterns of diapycnal mixing‐driven upwelling and downwelling and to the over and under estimation of mixing in such a way that the net rate of globally integrated deep circulation appears reasonable. However, the local rates of upwelling and downwelling in the deep ocean are significantly different when both parameters are allowed to covary and be spatially variable. These findings have important implications for the representation of oceanic heat, carbon, nutrients, and other tracer budgets in general circulation models.
Highlights
This supporting information contains the following figures and information: Figure S1: global map of buoyancy Reynolds number (Reb) at the depth of 3500 m calculated by using a variable breaking efficiency q(x, y)
From the parameterization of the flux coefficient used in this study, the maximum flux coefficient
We discuss here the choices of parameters used and their uncertainty, and we show in Figures S4a and S4b the sensitivity of the net water mass transformation rate to changes in q(x, y) and Γ(Reb), respectively
Summary
This supporting information contains the following figures and information: Figure S1: global map of buoyancy Reynolds number (Reb) at the depth of 3500 m calculated by using a variable breaking efficiency q(x, y).
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