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Fluids
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Ocean Convection
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Ocean Convection

A special issue of Fluids (ISSN 2311-5521). This special issue belongs to the section "Geophysical and Environmental Fluid Mechanics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2021) | Viewed by 9293

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bishakhdatta Gayen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Interests: boundary layer turbulence; geostrophic circulation (rotating flows); granular flow; internal tides and turbulence; melting of ice-shelves in seawater; open ocean convection; turbulence modelling (LES); turbulent convection
Dr. Catherine A. Vreugdenhil

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Interests: turbulent convection; rotating convection; ocean circulation; turbulent and stratified flows, ice shelf–ocean interactions; direct numerical and large-eddy simulations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Convection is driven by buoyancy differences in a fluid, which generate vertical velocities and the transport of fluxes. Turbulent convection is a key and crucial process in the ocean that regulates the rate of heat uptake, CO2 exchange, and nutrient and water-mass transport. These rates are extremely important in understanding ocean circulation and climate dynamics more broadly. Both atmospheric cooling and brine rejection (from evaporation or sea-ice formation) are dominant mechanisms in the densification of surface waters, which then down-well as turbulent convective plumes. These turbulent plumes often deepen the upper ocean mixed layer, and can even reach thousands of meters in depth. Deep convection can form dense bottom slope currents and is an important contributor to forcing global meridional overturning. Convection is often highly localized in time and space, making it extremely difficult to accurately measure in field observations. Ocean modelling in the form of global circulation models (GCMs) is unable to resolve convection and turbulence, and instead relies on simple convective parameterizations, resulting in a poor representation of convective processes and their impact on ocean circulation. Our current knowledge of turbulent convection in the ocean is incomplete, but progress has been made in recent years, which we wish to highlight in this Special Issue.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers from a range of studies on turbulent convection in oceans. The focus is on various types of turbulent convection in oceans arising from surface buoyancy forcing, such as open-ocean convection, polynyas, and mixed layer convection. All approaches are welcome, including numerical simulations, laboratory experiments, field observations, and theoretical studies.

Dr. Bishakhdatta Gayen
Dr. Catherine A. Vreugdenhil
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fluids is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • turbulent convection
  • surface buoyancy forcing
  • mixed layer dynamics
  • convective heat flux
  • ocean circulation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

20 pages, 2924 KiB  
Review
Ocean Convection
by Catherine A. Vreugdenhil and Bishakhdatta Gayen
Fluids 2021, 6(10), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6100360 - 12 Oct 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 8668
Abstract
Ocean convection is a key mechanism that regulates heat uptake, water-mass transformation, CO2 exchange, and nutrient transport with crucial implications for ocean dynamics and climate change. Both cooling to the atmosphere and salinification, from evaporation or sea-ice formation, cause surface waters to [...] Read more.
Ocean convection is a key mechanism that regulates heat uptake, water-mass transformation, CO2 exchange, and nutrient transport with crucial implications for ocean dynamics and climate change. Both cooling to the atmosphere and salinification, from evaporation or sea-ice formation, cause surface waters to become dense and down-well as turbulent convective plumes. The upper mixed layer in the ocean is significantly deepened and sustained by convection. In the tropics and subtropics, night-time cooling is a main driver of mixed layer convection, while in the mid- and high-latitude regions, winter cooling is key to mixed layer convection. Additionally, at higher latitudes, and particularly in the sub-polar North Atlantic Ocean, the extensive surface heat loss during winter drives open-ocean convection that can reach thousands of meters in depth. On the Antarctic continental shelf, polynya convection regulates the formation of dense bottom slope currents. These strong convection events help to drive the immense water-mass transport of the globally-spanning meridional overturning circulation (MOC). However, convection is often highly localised in time and space, making it extremely difficult to accurately measure in field observations. Ocean models such as global circulation models (GCMs) are unable to resolve convection and turbulence and, instead, rely on simple convective parameterizations that result in a poor representation of convective processes and their impact on ocean circulation, air–sea exchange, and ocean biology. In the past few decades there has been markedly more observations, advancements in high-resolution numerical simulations, continued innovation in laboratory experiments and improvement of theory for ocean convection. The impacts of anthropogenic climate change on ocean convection are beginning to be observed, but key questions remain regarding future climate scenarios. Here, we review the current knowledge and future direction of ocean convection arising from sea–surface interactions, with a focus on mixed layer, open-ocean, and polynya convection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ocean Convection)
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