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Submesoscale eddy contribution to ocean vertical heat flux diagnosed from airborne observations
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  • Hector S. Torres,
  • Alexander Wineteer,
  • Ernesto Rodriguez,
  • Patrice Klein,
  • Andrew F. Thompson,
  • Dragana Perkovic-Martin,
  • Jeroen Molemaker,
  • Delphine Julie Hypolite,
  • Jörn Callies,
  • Tom Farrar,
  • Eric A D'Asaro,
  • Mara A. Freilich
Hector S. Torres
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Alexander Wineteer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Ernesto Rodriguez
Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA)
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Patrice Klein
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Andrew F. Thompson
California Institute of Technology
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Dragana Perkovic-Martin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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Jeroen Molemaker
University of California Los Angeles
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Delphine Julie Hypolite
University of California, Los Angeles
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Jörn Callies
California Institute of Technology
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Tom Farrar
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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Eric A D'Asaro
University of Washington
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Mara A. Freilich
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego
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Abstract

Submesoscale eddies (those smaller than 50~km) are ubiquitous throughout the ocean, as revealed by satellite infrared images. Diagnosing their impact on ocean energetics from observations remains a challenge. This study analyzes a turbulent field of submesoscale eddies using airborne observations of surface currents and sea surface temperature, with high spatial resolution, collected during the S-MODE experiment in October 2022. Assuming surface current divergence and temperature are homogeneous down to 30 m depth, we show that more than 80% of the upward vertical heat fluxes, reaching ~227 W~m^{-2}, is explained by the smallest resolved eddies, with a size smaller than 15 km. This result emphasizes the contribution of small-scale eddies, poorly represented in numerical models, to the ocean heat budget and, therefore, to the climate system
07 Sep 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
09 Sep 2024Published in ESS Open Archive