Is horizontal convection really “non-turbulent?”

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Computational Geophysics: Modeling (1952, 4255, 4316), Oceanography: General: Numerical Modeling (0545, 0560, 1952), Nonlinear Geophysics: Turbulence (3379, 4568, 7863), Oceanography: Physical: Turbulence, Diffusion, And Mixing Processes (4490)

Scientific paper

Within the geophysical community Horizontal Convection (HC) has been considered irrelevant or nearly so in driving large scale overturning flows, based primarily on an inference based on a century old experiment by Sandström (1908), and on a theoretical argument that would prevent HC to sustain a true turbulent flow, the latter deemed necessary to achieve mixing. We revisit Paparella and Young's (2002) argument with the aid of DNS of HC at Rayleigh number up to 1010. We argue that the criterion used by these authors is overly restrictive. On the contrary, geometrical statistics show that HC possesses the characteristic of turbulent flows. The surprising result is that HC can transport very large quantities of heat and sustain large amounts of diapycnal mixing with a surprisingly small amount of dissipation. Values of diapycnal mixing and dissipation in the ocean are shown to be consistent with a HC driven ocean provided the effect of wind-forcing are included.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Is horizontal convection really “non-turbulent?” does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Is horizontal convection really “non-turbulent?”, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Is horizontal convection really “non-turbulent?” will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-739208

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.