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Internal wave-driven mixing: governing processes and consequences for climate

Abstract

Turbulent mixing from breaking oceanic internal waves drives a vertical transport of water, heat and other climatically important tracers in the ocean, thereby playing an important role in shaping the circulation and distributions of heat and carbon within the climate system. However, linking internal wave-driven mixing to its impacts on climate poses a formidable challenge, since it requires understanding of the complex life cycle of internal waves — including generation, propagation and breaking into turbulence — and knowledge of the spatio-temporal variability of these processes in the diverse, rapidly evolving oceanic environment. In this Review, we trace the energy pathways from tides, winds and geostrophic currents to internal wave mixing, connecting this mixing with the global climate system. Additionally, we discuss avenues for future work, including understanding energy transfer processes within the internal wave field, how internal waves can be modified by background currents and how internal wave mixing is integrated within the global climate system.

Key points

  • Tides, winds and geographic currents can generate oceanic internal waves and, as a result, are major sources of energy for the internal wave field.

  • Interactions between internal waves and topography, currents or other internal waves can transfer energy to smaller spatio-temporal scales. How these processes combine to yield the observed internal wave environment, however, is not well understood.

  • Internal waves can eventually become unstable, causing them to turbulently dissipate energy and mix water across density classes, thereby altering ocean dynamics.

  • The location and timing of internal wave generation, energy transfer to smaller scales and subsequent turbulent dissipation conspire to form the continually evolving global distribution of mixing from internal waves.

  • The global climate is shaped by the magnitude and geography of internal wave mixing, including the global oceanic overturning circulation, water property distribution and air–sea interactions.

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Fig. 1: The primary internal wave mechanisms leading to ocean mixing.
Fig. 2: Turbulent mixing in two different internal wave environments.
Fig. 3: A simplified global energy budget of internal waves.
Fig. 4: The life cycle of internal tides.
Fig. 5: The seasonal cycle in wind activity can track the seasonal cycle in near-inertial wave energy and dissipation rate.
Fig. 6: Two mechanisms of internal wave generation from geostrophic currents.
Fig. 7: Global diapycnal mixing from internal waves and implications for climate.

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Acknowledgements

C.B.W. acknowledges the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration award 80NSSC19K1116, the National Science Foundation award OCE-1923558 and Office of Naval Research grant N00014-18-1-2598. A.C.N.G. acknowledges the support of the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation.

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C.B.W. led the design and writing of the Review. C.deL., A.C.N.G., J.M.K., J.A.M. and K.L.S. all contributed to the writing.

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Glossary

Orthogonal modes

In the context of internal waves, orthogonal modes are a theoretical framework used to describe the vertical structure of internal waves, where low-mode internal waves have larger vertical scales and high-mode internal waves have smaller vertical scales.

Buoyancy frequency

(N).The oscillation frequency of a vertically displaced water parcel, which scales with the local vertical stratification gradient.

Coriolis frequency

(f). Alternatively referred to as the interial frequency. The oscillation frequency of a horizontally displaced water parcel influenced solely by the Earth’s rotation and defined by 2Ω sinϕ, where Ω is the angular velocity of the Earth and ϕ is the latitude.

Diapycnal diffusivity

(K). Diffusivity across density surfaces, with unit m2 s−1.

Turbulent kinetic enregy dissipation rate ε

Rate of energy dissipation due to viscosity, with units W kg−1.

Barotropic tides

Nearly full-depth periodic rise and fall of ocean water due to the gravitational attraction of the Moon and the Sun.

Lee waves

Internal waves often generated by deep geostrophic flow encountering topographic features.

Baroclinic tides

Depth-varying oscillations at tidal frequencies arising from barotropic tides impinging on topographic features. Also referred to as internal tides.

Near-inertial waves

Internal waves at or near the Coriolis/inertial frequency, often, but not always, generated by the wind.

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Whalen, C.B., de Lavergne, C., Naveira Garabato, A.C. et al. Internal wave-driven mixing: governing processes and consequences for climate. Nat Rev Earth Environ 1, 606–621 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0097-z

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