Tuesday 23 August 2005

PB3
1400-1520 hours

187
Large scale extraction of potential energy from the water column, and its resupply by vertical mixing
Bye, John¹
1 The School Of Earth Sciences, The University Of Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Author email: jbye@unimelb.edu.au
The ocean is characterised by the store of potential energy (PE) contained in its thermohaline structure. The release of this PE must be resupplied through diffusive processes, which are in turn maintained by the thermohaline circulation. We will present estimates of the rate of PE release associated with the upward transfer of energy across the sea surface due to the correlation between the sea surface slope and the atmospheric pressure, which arises from the baroclinic instability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere. It is found that this process, which has not previously been considered in the mixing debate,requires the existence of vertical diffusion coeficients of similar magnitude to those used in general circulation models. Reference: Bye, J.A.T. 2004 Dyn. Atmos. Oceans, 38 39-56

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