HR: 1340h
AN: OS13A-0997    [Abstracts]
TI: Tracer Tubes: A New Inverse Technique for Estimating Water-Mass Subduction and Mixing Coefficients
AU: * McDougall, T J
EM: Trevor.McDougall@csiro.au
AF: Trevor J McDougall, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia
AU: Zika, J D
EM: Jan.Zika@csiro.au
AB: A new "Tracer Tube" or "TT" inverse technique for estimating the vertical and lateral mixing coefficients and the lateral transport down temperature and salinity gradients on isopycnal layers will be presented. The technique combines equations for the balance between diffusion processes and the non-adiabatic lateral flow along density surfaces. The technique is over-determined, does not require a priori information and avoids much of the signal to noise error associated with differentiating hydrographic data in conventional inverse techniques. The TT inverse technique is being applied to output of a layered model (HIM). Early results indicate that it can accurately resolve both lateral and vertical diffusivities as well as the subduction rates of different water masses down sloping isopycnals in an area of the southern ocean.
DE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes
DE: 4532 General circulation (1218, 1222)
DE: 4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes (4490)
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting