On the Asymmetry of Rotating Stratified Throughflows Across Finite Amplitude Topography. Part I: Injection of Boundary Layer PV

TL;DR

This paper investigates the baroclinic structure of rotating stratified throughflows over finite topography, revealing how boundary layer PV injection influences flow patterns and stratification, with implications for large-scale ocean dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces an idealized model analyzing PV injection and boundary currents in rotating stratified flows over topography, highlighting the role of bottom boundary layer dynamics.

Findings

Boundary currents amplify stratification through bottom Ekman dynamics.

High PV accumulates along the ridge, low PV is advected downstream.

PV injection balances net advection across the ridge.

Abstract

We present an idealized study of the baroclinic structure of a rotating, stratified throughflow across a finite amplitude ridge in the f-plane that is forced by a steady, uniform inflow and outflow of equal magnitude. The resulting equilibrated circulation is characterized by unstable, western-intensified boundary currents and flow along f/H contours atop the ridge near the crest that closes the forced circulation. We find that bottom Ekman dynamics localized to lateral boundary currents amplify the stratification expected by simple stretching/squashing: a strongly stratified bottom front (high PV anomaly) along the anticyclonic boundary current associated with net upslope transport, and a bottom mixed layer front (vanishing PV anomaly) localized to the cyclonic boundary current where there is net downslope transport. PV anomalies associated with the two fronts are advected by both the mean flow and eddies that result from baroclinic growth, resulting in a spatial distribution where high PV is concentrated along the ridge, and low PV is advected into the interior ocean downstream from the ridge, at mid-depth. Using a framework of volume integrated PV conservation which incorporates the net fluxes associated with bottom topography, we conform an approximate integral balance between the PV injection from the bottom boundary layer on the ridge and net advection across the ridge. Implications of these findings for understanding the interplay between large scale and bottom boundary dynamics are discussed.