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Suppression of internal waves by thermohaline staircases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2020

Timour Radko Open the ORCID record for Timour Radko [Opens in a new window]
Timour Radko*
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA93943, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study attempts to quantify and explain the systematic weakening of internal gravity waves in fingering and diffusive thermohaline staircases. The interaction between waves and staircases is explored using a combination of direct numerical simulations (DNS) and an asymptotic multiscale model. The multiscale theory makes it possible to express the wave decay rate $({\lambda _d})$ as a function of its wavenumbers and staircase parameters. We find that the decay rates in fully developed staircases greatly exceed values that can be directly attributed to molecular dissipation. They rapidly increase with increasing wavenumbers, both vertical and horizontal. At the same time, ${\lambda _d}$ is only weakly dependent on the thickness of layers in the staircase, the overall density ratio and the diffusivity ratio. The proposed physical mechanism of attenuation emphasizes the significance of eddy diffusion of temperature and salinity, whereas eddy viscosity plays a secondary role in damping internal waves. The asymptotic model is successfully validated by the DNS performed in numerically accessible regimes. We also discuss potential implications of staircase-induced suppression for diapycnal mixing by overturning internal waves in the ocean.

JFM classification

Convection: Double diffusive convection
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 902 , 10 November 2020 , A14
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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