Stochastic compressible Navier-Stokes equations under location uncertainty and their approximations for ocean modelling

TL;DR

This paper develops a stochastic version of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for ocean modeling, combining theoretical derivations with numerical simulations to better capture physical uncertainties in ocean dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel stochastic framework for compressible Navier-Stokes equations under location uncertainty, applied to ocean vertical mixing and large-eddy simulations.

Findings

Stochastic transport can reproduce penetrative convection effects.

Compression effects are negligible in internal energy but significant in potential energy.

The framework enhances physical uncertainty representation in ocean models.

Abstract

This paper presents a joint theoretical and numerical study of a stochastic version of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations within the location uncertainty (LU) framework, applied to problems related to upper ocean vertical mixing. This approach builds on an extended stochastic form of the Reynolds transport theorem, incorporating stochastic source terms. As in the deterministic case, this conservation theorem is applied to mass, mass of species (such as salinity), momentum, and total energy, leading to transport equations for the primitive variables: density, mass fraction of species, velocity, and temperature. We subsequently apply the Boussinesq approximations to this general system, and recover existing formulations of the incompressible stochastic Navier-Stokes and stochastic Boussinesq equations. We employ this new framework in a Boussinesq large-eddy simulation of temperature-driven free convection event, and highlight the potential of stochastic transport to reproduce penetrative convection effects at the base of the mixed layer under the Boussinesq approximation. Compression effects identified in our stochastic Boussinesq hydrostatic model are found to be negligible in the temperature equation when expressed in terms of internal energy, in agreement with Boussinesq approximation. However, when expressed in terms of potential energy, compression effects become significant, and reveal interesting properties of the stochastic pressure terms within the mixed layer. We believe this later results open new physical modelling perspective enabling to represent oceanic dynamics within a stochastic framework that more fully accounts for physical uncertainties and approximations, while also providing a basis for improving the energetic consistency of subgrid-scale vertical models used in ocean general circulation models.