SEMINAR: MPO Special Seminar: Georgy Manucharyan, Monday, December 17, at 1:30 p.m., MSC 343

[Sandrine Apelbaum <sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu>]

MPO Special Seminar

Georgy Manucharyan

Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT

"Generation and Separation of Mesoscale Eddies from Surface Ocean Fronts"

Room: MSC 343

Date: Monday,December 17, at 1:30 p.m.

Abstract
We explore the eddy formation mechanism through numerical simula-
tions of the frontal instability, putting emphasis on identifying the frontal
configurations that allow for a clear separation of the generated eddies
from the influence of the front. The motivation for this study comes from
observations of sub-mixed layer eddies in the Arctic Ocean, which at great
distances away from the assumed formation region. We find that fronts
with configurations similar to the ones observed in the Arctic Ocean, are
baroclinically unstable and lead to the development eddies. Some of the
eddies are formed as dipoles and hence have the potential self-propagate
away from the front. However, the ability of generated eddies to escape
depends on frontal configuration. We make an analytical prediction of the
factors that control the dipole trajectories, based on the idealized view of
the eddy formation mechanism. The favorable for eddy separation frontal
configuration are the ones with top layer being several times deeper then
the layer underneath it. We confirm the existence of the predicted regime
with high resolution numerical simulations in which we were able to re-
produce the process of frontal instabilities leading to eddies shedding far
away from the front. The favorable frontal configurations are realistic for
the observed front in the Arctic Ocean.

Sandrine Apelbaum

Meteorology and Physical Oceanography 
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149-1098
Tel     (305) 421-4057
Fax     (305) 421-4696

sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu