Phase transition of the energy flux in the near-inertial wave--mesoscale eddy coupled turbulence

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy transfer and phase transition in the coupled system of near-inertial waves and mesoscale eddies, revealing a second-order phase transition influenced by the relative strength of wave and mean flow forcing.

Contribution

It introduces a heuristic prediction of phase transition in energy transfer based on conserved quantities and validates it through numerical simulations, highlighting the CWI mechanism's role in ocean energetics.

Findings

Existence of a second-order phase transition at a critical forcing ratio R_c.

Different energy transfer regimes below and above R_c.

Identification of the catalytic wave induction (CWI) mechanism.

Abstract

Wind forcing injects energy into the mesoscale eddies and near-inertial waves (NIWs) in the ocean, and the NIW is believed to solve the puzzle of mesoscale energy budget by absorbing energy from mesoscale eddies followed by a forward cascade of NIW energy which finally dissipates at the ocean interior. This work studies the turbulent energy transfer in the NIW--quasigeostrophic mean mesoscale eddy coupled system based on a previously derived two-dimensional model which has a Hamiltonian structure and inherits conserved quantities in the Boussinesq equations (Xie \& Vanneste, \textit{J. Fluid Mech.}, vol. 774, 2015, pp. 147--169). Based on the conservation of energy, potential enstrophy and wave action, we propose a heuristic argument predicting the existence of phase transition with changing the relative strength between NIW and mean flow. By running forced-dissipative numerical simulations with varying parameter $R$, the ratio of the magnitude of NIW and mean-flow forcing, we justify the existence of phase transition, which is found to be second-order, around critical value $R_c$. When $0<R<R_c$, energy transfers bidirectionally, wave action transfers downscale, and vorticity form strong cyclones. While when $R>R_c$, energy transfers downscale, wave action transfers bidirectionally, and vortex filaments are dominant. We find the catalytic wave induction (CWI) mechanism where the NIW induces a downscale energy flux of the mean flow. The CWI mechanism differs from the stimulated loss of balance by the absence of energy conversion from the mesoscale eddy to NIW, and it is found to be effective in the toy-model study, making it potentially important for ocean energetics.