2014/06/23 by Liang Sun, Sun, Liang
Physics and Astronomy · #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #physics.ao-ph #physics.flu-dyn #physics.geo-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1406.5928
6 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2014/06/23 · arxiv updated 2014/06/24
Diapycnical eddy diffusivities are formulated from physical relations according to a simple fact that the different formulas are identical for the same parameter. It is found that the dispassion ratio Γis a crucial parameter. When it is above a critical value (about 0.2), the flow is salt finger type; otherwise, it is turbulence. All the density ratio Rρ=1/(1-Γ2), eddy flux ratio γ=1/(1+Γ), and eddy diffusivity ratio Rk=1-Γ are simply dependent on the dispassion ratio gamma Γ. We apply these relations to the measurement data in the western tropical Atlantic Ocean. The effective diapycnal diffusivity is 0.96*10-4 m2/s that agrees quite well with the observation from 0.8 to 0.9*10-4 m2/s by tracer.