Mixed Layer Instabilities and frontogenesis’s seasonality in the Gulf Stream Region

Dynamics of motions on long spatial scales, that are strongly affected by rotation and stratification, is in first approximation described by the balance of buoyancy and Coriolis forces. In this regime, the dynamics is nearly two dimensional and energy flows from short to large scales. In contrast, the regime of weak stratification and rotation is dominated by viscosity and advection, and the flow is free to develop in 3D, and the energy to cascade towards smaller and dissipative scales. Submesoscale dynamics is thought to lie between these two regimes, playing the important role of conveying energy from the larger scales of the energy intake to smaller scales where the dissipation takes place [2].