Lagrangian study of dispersion and transport by submesoscale currents at an upper-ocean front

Abstract

The three-dimensional transport pathways, the time scales of vertical transport, and the dispersion characteristics of submesoscale currents at an upper-ocean front are investigated using material points (tracer particles) that advect with the local fluid velocity. Coherent submesoscale vortex filaments and eddies which dominate submesoscale (0.1 - 10 km) dynamics are found to play a crucial role which is quantified here. These coherent structures are generated and sustained through nonlinear evolution of baroclinic instability. The collective motion of particles helps identify common features of transport at the front. It is found that the particles in the central region organize into inclined lobes, each associated with an eddy, and the filaments associated with the heavy- and light-edges of the front transfer edge particles to the lobes. This flux of new particles into the lobe causes local particles to adjust, which leads to slumping of the front. The particle motion in the vertical shows multiple time scales -- a fast time scale with O(10) m vertical displacement within an hour and a slower near-inertial time scale, comparable to the intrinsic time scale of the growing instability. The fast time scale motions typically occur in the vortex filaments. The overall slumping process is slower than what one might anticipate from the large magnitude of vertical velocity in the filaments and requires a sustained correlation over time between the lateral and the vertical motion. By tracking clouds of particles, we show that their centers of mass downwell/upwell over 1-2 inertial time periods, after which an adjustment follows with a sub-inertial time scale. The dispersion characteristics of the submesoscale turbulent currents using single- and pair-particle statistics have been investigated. The shape change in clusters of four particles reveals deformation into thin, needle-like structures.