Geophysical flows are characterized by the presence of coherent vortices, localized concentrations of energy and vorticity that have a lifetime much longer than the local turbulence time (sometimes called the eddy turnover time). In the ocean, coherent vortices, or eddies, are ubiquitous features whose size varies between several to a few hundred kilometers, and that account for a large portion of the ocean turbulent kinetic energy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. The presence of vortices can be revealed in various ways. Vortices at the ocean surface imprint their signature on the sea surface height and can be tracked by satellite, while floats with looping trajectories can help revealing the presence of vortices at depth. Coherent vortices significantly affect the dynamics and the statistical properties of ocean flows, with important consequences on transport processes. In this contribution, we shall briefly review some of these issues, focusing on the simplified conceptual model provided by two-dimensional turbulence. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Provenzale, A., Babiano, A., Bracco, A., Pasquero, C., Weiss, J. (2008). Coherent vortices and tracer transport. In Transport and mixing in geophysical flows (pp. 101-116). Springer [10.1007/978-3-540-75215-8_5].
Coherent vortices and tracer transport
PASQUERO, CLAUDIA;
2008
Abstract
Geophysical flows are characterized by the presence of coherent vortices, localized concentrations of energy and vorticity that have a lifetime much longer than the local turbulence time (sometimes called the eddy turnover time). In the ocean, coherent vortices, or eddies, are ubiquitous features whose size varies between several to a few hundred kilometers, and that account for a large portion of the ocean turbulent kinetic energy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. The presence of vortices can be revealed in various ways. Vortices at the ocean surface imprint their signature on the sea surface height and can be tracked by satellite, while floats with looping trajectories can help revealing the presence of vortices at depth. Coherent vortices significantly affect the dynamics and the statistical properties of ocean flows, with important consequences on transport processes. In this contribution, we shall briefly review some of these issues, focusing on the simplified conceptual model provided by two-dimensional turbulence. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
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