Dr. Pavel Berloff, Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London

Oceanic Eddy-Induced Transport: Full-Tensor Approach

In geophysical turbulence effects of small-scale motions on the large-scale ones are often formulated in terms of turbulent (eddy) diffusion characterized by the eddy diffusivity coefficient. Within this context we focused on passive-tracer transport induced by mesoscale oceanic eddies and applied brute-force approach, without any simplifications and extra assumptions. The uncovered new levels of complexity of the corresponding full-tensor eddy diffusivity coefficient, referred to as the "transport tensor", call for reconsideration of how the eddy diffusion and corresponding scale interactions are treated in observations, general circulation models and theory.