Tracing the Ventilation Pathways of the Deep North Pacific Ocean Using Lagrangian Particles and Eulerian Tracers

Tracing the Ventilation Pathways of the Deep North Pacific Ocean Using Lagrangian Particles and Eulerian Tracers

Syed, H.A.M.S. (TU Delft Mathematical Physics; Sukkur Institute of Business Administration)
Primeau, F.W. (University of California)
Deleersnijder, E.L.C. (TU Delft Mathematical Physics; Université Catholique de Louvain)
Heemink, A.W. (TU Delft Mathematical Physics)

2017

Lagrangian forward and backward models are introduced into a coarse-grid ocean global circulation model to trace the ventilation routes of the deep North Pacific Ocean. The random walk aspect in the Lagrangian model is dictated by a rotated isopycnal diffusivity tensor in the circulation model, and the effect of diffusion is explicitly resolved by means of stochastic terms in the Lagrangian model. The analogy between the probability distribution of a Lagrangian model with Green's function of an Eulerian tracer transport equation is established. The estimated first- and last-passage time density of the deep North Pacific using both the Eulerian and the Lagrangian models ensured that the Lagrangian pathways and their ensemble statistics are consistent with the Eulerian tracer transport and its adjoint model. Moreover, the sample pathways of the ventilated mass fractions of the deep North Pacific particles to and from the ocean surface are studied.

Differential equations
Diffusion
Lagrangian circulation/transport
Numerical analysis/modeling
Ocean circulation
Trajectories

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4ec537f2-cd51-43c1-9983-cb2af8b7554f

https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-16-0098.1

2018-05-19

0022-3670

Journal of Physical Oceanography, 47 (6), 1261-1280

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 H.A.M.S. Syed, F.W. Primeau, E.L.C. Deleersnijder, A.W. Heemink