Coarse resolution numerical ocean models must typically include a parameterisation for mesoscale turbulence. A common recipe for such parameterisations is to invoke mixing of some tracer quantity, such as potential vorticity or buoyancy. However, it is well known that eddy fluxes include large rotational components which necessarily do not lead to any mixing; eddy diffusivities diagnosed from u...

Using Ekman pumping rates mediated by sea ice in the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre (BG), the magnitude of lateral eddy diffusivities required to balance downward pumping is inferred. In this limit—that of vanishing residual-mean circulation—eddy-induced upwelling exactly balances downward pumping. The implied eddy diffusivity varies spatially and decays with depth, with values of 50–400 m2/s. Ed...

The Reynolds stress induced by anisotropically forcing an unbounded Couette flow, with uniform shear γ, on a β-plane, is calculated in conjunction with the eddy diffusivity of a co-evolving passive tracer. The flow is damped by linear drag on a time scale μ. The stochastic forcing is white-noise in time and its spatial anisotropy is controlled by a parameter α, that characterizes whether eddies...

The Reynolds stress induced by anisotropically forcing an unbounded Couette flow, with uniform shear g, on a b plane, is calculated in conjunction with the eddy diffusivity of a coevolving passive tracer. The flow is damped by linear drag on a time scale m. The stochastic forcing is white noise in time and its spatial anisotropy is controlled by a parameter a that characterizes whether eddies a...

Diffusive eddy closure theory for estimating the poleward heat flux is reexamined and tested in the context of a two-layer homogeneous model. Consideration of the inverse energy cascade induced by baroclinic turbulence on the b plane leads to an expression for diffusivity in terms of the kinetic energy dissipation and the b effect. A key step in the closure is the identification of this diffusi...

Earth’s extra-tropical troposphere is equilibrated by turbulent eddy fluxes of potential temperature and momentum. The equilibrated state has the remarkable characteristic that isentropic slopes leaving the surface in the sub-tropics reach the tropopause near the poles. It has been speculated that turbulent eddy fluxes maintain this state for a wide range of radiative forcing and planetary para...

The robustness of Nakamura’s effective diffusivity diagnostic for quantifying eddy diffusivities of tracers within a streamwise-average framework is carefully examined in an oceanographic context, and the limits of its applicability are detailed. The near-surface Southern Ocean geostrophic flow, obtained from altimetric observations, is chosen for particular examination since it exhibits strong...

At the crossroad between flow topology analysis and the theory of turbulence, a new eddy-viscosity model for Large-eddy simulation has been recently proposed by Trias et al .[PoF, 27, 065103 (2015)]. The S3PQR-model has the proper cubic near-wall behaviour and no intrinsic limitations for statistically inhomogeneous flows. In this work, the new model has been tested for an air turbulent Rayleig...