[A-OS11] Ocean Mixing Frontiers

[AOS11-P03] Lagrangian Dispersion and Mixing in the Open-ocean convection

*Ankit Bhadouriya^1,2, Bishakhdatta Gayen^1,3 (1.The University of Melbourne, Australia, 2.Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, 3.Indian Institute of Science, India)

Keywords:Deep convection, Lagrangian particles, Dispersion, Mixed layer

Open ocean convection (OOC) connects the surface ocean to the abyssal in high latitude regions, regulating heat, global marine biological activity, and carbon uptake. It creates destabilizing stratification by intense heat loss to the atmosphere, which results in turbulent convection and the mixing of surface water to greater depths. Large amounts of organic matter, including particulate and dissolved carbon, are often injected into the deep ocean by sinking dense water through convection. Therefore, convection has a significant pathway for the export of organic matter and fields of passive chemical tracers. However, the importance of the deep convection phenomenon on biogenic particle transport remains uncertain. Ocean climate models are limited to resolve all the spatial and temporal scales generated within the mixed layer during the development of convective plumes, which necessitated a study of OOC through turbulence resolving simulations. The dispersion and mixing of particles during convection events is thus required to assess the accumulation, mixing, redistribution of it and, in general, to understand better particulate or biogeological cycling. A three-dimensional velocity field computed from well-resolved DNS is used to make trajectory analysis of Lagrangian particles. This work aims to evaluate the dispersion and mixing of tracer and dynamic properties associated with Lagrangian particles to assess the transport and mixing mechanism.