When Are Eddy Tracer Fluxes Directed Downgradient?

Abstract

Abstract The mechanisms controlling the direction of eddy tracer fluxes are examined using eddy-resolving isopycnic experiments for a cyclic zonal channel. Eddy fluxes are directed downgradient on average when either (i) there is a Lagrangian increase in tracer variance or (ii) there is strong dissipation of tracer variance. The effect of the eddies on the mean tracer evolution can be described through an ensemble of eddies that each have a particular life cycle. Local examination of the eddy behavior, such as fluxes, eddy kinetic energy, and tracer variance appears complex, although the cumulative time-mean picture has coherence: eddies are preferentially formed in localized regions with downstream growth and increase in tracer variance concomitant with downgradient eddy tracer fluxes, while eventually the eddies decay with a decrease in tracer variance and upgradient eddy tracer fluxes. During spinup, tracer deformation through flow instability leads to an area-average increase in tracer variance (although locally it is increasing and decreasing with the individual eddy life cycles) and therefore an implied area-average, downgradient tracer flux. At a steady state, part of the pattern in eddy fluxes simply reflects advection of background tracer variance by the time-mean and eddy flows. The eddy flux becomes biased to being directed downgradient if there is a strong sink in the tracer, which is likely to be the case for eddy heat fluxes along isopycnals outcropping in the mixed layer or for eddy nitrate fluxes along isopycnals intersecting the euphotic zone.