A Theory for Wind Work on Oceanic Mesoscales and Submesoscales

TL;DR

This paper develops a fluid dynamics theory linking wind work to oceanic vortical and straining motions, revealing that winds dampen both and that inherent wind gradients asymmetrically energize ocean flows, filling a key knowledge gap.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework connecting wind stress to energy transfer into oceanic vortical and straining motions, accounting for wind gradients and their asymmetric effects.

Findings

Winds dampen both vortical and straining ocean motions.

Oceanic strain induces wind stress gradients similar to vorticity effects.

Inherent wind gradients cause asymmetric ocean flow energization.

Abstract

Previous studies focused primarily on wind stress being proportional to wind velocity relative to the ocean velocity, which induces a curl in wind stress with polarity opposite to the ocean mesoscale vorticity, resulting in net negative wind work. However, there remains a fundamental gap in understanding how wind work on the ocean is related to the ocean's vortical and straining motions. While it is possible to derive budgets for ocean vorticity and strain, these do not provide the energy channeled into vortical and straining motions by wind stress. An occasional misconception is that a Helmholtz decomposition can separate vorticity from strain, with the latter mistakenly regarded as being solely due to the potential flow accounting for divergent motions. In fact, strain is also an essential constituent of divergence-free (or solenoidal) flows, including the oceanic mesoscales in geostrophic balance where strain-dominated regions account for approximately half the KE. There is no existing fluid dynamics framework that relates the injection of kinetic energy by a force to how this energy is deposited into vortical and straining motions. Here, we show that winds, on average, are just as effective at damping straining motions as they are at damping vortical motions. This happens because oceanic strain induces a straining wind stress gradient (WSG), which is analogous to ocean vorticity inducing a curl in wind stress. Ocean-induced WSGs alone, whether straining or vortical, always damp ocean currents. However, our theory also reveals that a significant contribution to wind work comes from inherent wind gradients, a main component of which is due to prevailing winds of the general atmospheric circulation. We find that inherent WSGs lead to asymmetric energization of ocean weather based on the polarity of vortical and straining ocean flows.