Mapping the Energy Cascade in the North Atlantic Ocean: The Coarse-Graining Approach

AbstractA coarse-graining framework is implemented to analyze nonlinear processes, measure energy transfer rates, and map out the energy pathways from simulated global ocean data. Traditional tools to measure the energy cascade from turbulence theory, such as spectral flux or spectral transfer, rely on the assumption of statistical homogeneity or at least a large separation between the scales of motion and the scales of statistical inhomogeneity. The coarse-graining framework allows for probing the fully nonlinear dynamics simultaneously in scale and in space and is not restricted by those assumptions. This paper describes how the framework can be applied to ocean flows. Energy transfer between scales is not unique because of a gauge freedom. Here, it is argued that a Galilean-invariant subfilter-scale (SFS) flux is a suitable quantity to properly measure energy scale transfer in the ocean. It is shown that the SFS definition can yield answers that are qualitatively different from traditional measures tha...