Abstract:

A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is used to model the 3D mixed layer on scales from 4 m to 20 km. This dataset contains snapshots of the state variables in the wind- and cooling-only forcing. The wave-driven data are available in GRIIDC dataset R6.x806.000:0017.

Suggested Citation:

Baylor Fox-Kemper, Nobuhiro Suzuki, Peter Hamlington, Luke Van Roekel. 2018. Large eddy simulation of the mixed layer, wind and cooling only. Distributed by: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7BZ64FX

Publications:

Smith, K. M., Hamlington, P. E., & Fox-Kemper, B. (2016). Effects of submesoscale turbulence on ocean tracers. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(1), 908–933. doi:10.1002/2015jc011089

Purpose:

To examine the processes on scales from 4m to 20km in a typical upper ocean.

Data Parameters and Units:

Distances (m): x, y, zu (cell centers), zw (cell edges). Velocities (m/s): u (horizontal), v (horizontal), w (vertical). Time (s). Pressure per unit background density (m^2/s^2). Potential temperature (K). Subgrid turbulent kinetic energy per unit mass (m^2/s^2).

Methods:

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) LES model (Moeng 1984) is used to solve wave-averaged Boussinesq (WAB) equations; this code is described at length in McWilliams et al. (1997) and Sullivan et al. (2007). Two simulations are contrasted in the present study; they are otherwise identical runs with and without Stokes drift forcing us. The present study builds upon the simulations described in Hamlington et al. [2014] by introducing tracers to the simulation and restarting the computations at roughly day 12, corresponding to the final fully developed state in the Hamlington et al. [2014] study. The physical setup for the current study is the spin-down of two submesoscale buoyancy fronts; where a warm 10 km wide filament of water was initialized within a domain of cooler water. The simulation with stokes drift forcing are associated with another dataset. The files associated to this dataset are all without stoke forcing, some are at day 0 and 1 of the simulations in a domain of cooler water and the others are at day 10 and 11 with no longer cooler waters. The physical domain size of the simulation is 20 km x 20 km x 160 m, with a computational grid of size 4096 x 4096 x 128, giving a horizontal resolution of 5 m and a vertical resolution of 1 m.

Provenance and Historical References:

Hamlington, P. E., L. P. V. Roekel, B. Fox-Kemper, K. Julien, and G. P. Chini (2014). Langmuir-submesoscale interactions: Descriptive analysis of multiscale frontal spin-down simulations, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 44, 2249–2272. doi:10.1175/JPO-D-13-0139.1 McWilliams, J. C., P. Sullivan, and C. Moeng (1997). Langmuir turbulence in the ocean. J. Fluid Mech., 334, 1–30. doi:10.1017/S0022112096004375. Smith, K. M., Hamlington, P. E., and B. Fox-Kemper (2016). Effects of submesoscale turbulence on ocean tracers. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(1), 908–933. doi:10.1002/2015jc011089 Sullivan, P. P., J. C. McWilliams, and W. K. Melville (2007). Surface gravity wave effects in the oceanic boundary layer: Large-eddy simulation with vortex force and stochastic breakers. J. Fluid Mech., 593, 405–452. doi:10.1017/S002211200700897X

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