Oceanic Restratification Forced by Surface Frontogenesis

Abstract

Potential vorticity (PV) conservation implies a strong constraint on the time evolution of the mean density at a given depth. The authors show that, on an f plane and in the absence of sources and sinks of PV, it only depends on two terms, namely, the time evolution of the product between density anomaly and relative vorticity and the vertical PV flux. This primitive equation result, which applies at any depth, suggests that the ageostrophic dynamics induced by baroclinic eddies strongly affect the mean oceanic stratification profile. This result is illustrated for two simple initial-value simulations of a baroclinic, balanced jet. For initial situations propitious to surface frontogenesis, the simulations show a restratification over the whole water column characterized by the amplification in time of the Brunt?Väisälä frequency in the upper oceanic layers. In the absence of surface frontogenesis, such as when the jet is initialized at the middepth of the water column, the restratification is much weaker and slower. Because both simulations have similar kinetic energy and growth rate of baroclinic instability, the results clearly reveal that the restratification is driven by surface frontogenesis in the first case and by vertical PV flux in the interior in the second case. The authors also point out that the dynamics of the interior PV is tightly related to the surface dynamics because of total mass conservation.