2011/03/31 by Ismael Hernández‐Carrasco, I. Hernández-Carrasco, Crístobal López +5 · 44 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Classical mechanics #Climatology #Environmental science #Eulerian path #Flow (mathematics) #General Circulation Model #Geology #Kinetic energy #Lagrangian #Lyapunov exponent #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Mechanics #Meteorology #Nonlinear system #Ocean current #Ocean general circulation model #Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes #Oceanography #Physics #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Vortex #Vorticity #physics.ao-ph #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2012jc008222
published in Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 117(C10) (American Geophysical Union) · 32 pages, 7 figures
openalex publication_date 2012/09/06 · arxiv created 2012/10/05 · arxiv updated 2015/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recent work on Lagrangian descriptors has shown that Lyapunov Exponents can be applied to observed or simulated data to characterize the horizontal stirring and transport properties of the oceanic flow. However, a more detailed analysis of regional dependence and seasonal variability was still lacking. In this paper, we analyze the near‐surface velocity field obtained from the Ocean general circulation model For the Earth Simulator (OFES) using Finite‐Size Lyapunov Exponents (FSLE). We have characterized regional and seasonal variability. Our results show that horizontal stirring, as measured by FSLEs, is seasonally‐varying, with maximum values in Summer time. FSLEs also strongly vary depending on the region: we have first characterized the stirring properties of Northern and Southern Hemispheres, then the main oceanic basins and currents. We have finally studied the relation between averages of FSLE and some Eulerian descriptors such as Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE) and vorticity ( ω ) over the different regions.