Small-Scale Potential Vorticity in the Upper-Ocean Thermocline

Abstract

AbstractTwenty Electromagnetic Autonomous Profiling Explorer (EM-APEX) floats in the upper-ocean thermocline of the summer Sargasso Sea observed the temporal and vertical variations of Ertel potential vorticity (PV) at 7–70-m vertical scale, averaged over O(4–8)-km horizontal scale. PV is dominated by its linear components—vertical vorticity and vortex stretching, each with an rms value of ~0.15f. In the internal wave frequency band, they are coherent and in phase, as expected for linear internal waves. Packets of strong, >0.2f, vertical vorticity and vortex stretching balance closely with a small net rms PV. The PV spectrum peaks at the highest resolvable vertical wavenumber, ~0.1 cpm. The PV frequency spectrum has a red spectral shape, a −1 spectral slope in the internal wave frequency band, and a small peak at the inertial frequency. PV measured at near-inertial frequencies is partially attributed to the non-Lagrangian nature of float measurements. Measurement errors and the vortical mode also contribute to PV in the internal wave frequency band. The vortical mode Burger number, computed using time rates of change of vertical vorticity and vortex stretching, is 0.2–0.4, implying a horizontal kinetic energy to available potential energy ratio of ~0.1. The vortical mode energy frequency spectrum is 1–2 decades less than the observed energy spectrum. Vortical mode energy is likely underestimated because its energy at vertical scales > 70 m was not measured. The vortical mode to total energy ratio increases with vertical wavenumber, implying its importance at small vertical scales.