Low-vertical-wavenumber hump in the internal wave energy spectra
observed in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current region
Abstract
Finescale parameterizations are powerful tools for estimating the global
distribution of turbulent dissipation rates ε. However, they tend to
overestimate ε in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) region, where
bottom-reaching geostrophic flows accompanying vigorous eddies coexist
with energetic internal waves: near-inertial internal waves generated by
wind disturbances in the upper ocean and internal lee waves generated by
the ACC impinging on the small-scale bottom topography. In this study,
we explore the reason for such overestimates by analyzing the datasets
from the simultaneous microstructure and finestructure measurements
carried out in the ACC region. We find that, at the locations where
finescale parameterizations overestimate ε, vertical wavenumber spectra
of internal wave energy are distorted from the canonical Garrett-Munk
(GM) spectrum by a spectral “hump” at low wavenumbers
(~ 0.01 cpm). The existing finescale parameterizations
formulated based on the “white” GM spectrum overestimates ε for
“red” vertical wavenumber spectra. In the ACC region, such shear
(strain) spectra with a hump are mainly located in the upper ocean (at
near-bottom). Multivariate correlation analyses between the magnitude of
spectral humps and various physical parameters suggests that shear
(strain) spectral humps are caused by low-vertical-wavenumber
near-inertial wave (internal lee wave) packets superposed on a GM-like
internal wave field, and these internal wave packets are generated and
amplified by large scale geostrophic shear flows.