Topographic and Mixed Layer Submesoscale Currents in the Near-Surface Southwestern Tropical Pacific

AbstractThe distribution and strength of submesoscale (SM) surface layer fronts and filaments generated through mixed layer baroclinic energy conversion and submesoscale coherent vortices (SCVs) generated by topographic drag are analyzed in numerical simulations of the near-surface southwestern Pacific, north of 16°S. In the Coral Sea a strong seasonal cycle in the surface heat flux leads to a winter SM “soup” consisting of baroclinic mixed layer eddies (MLEs), fronts, and filaments similar to those seen in other regions farther away from the equator. However, a strong wind stress seasonal cycle, largely in sync with the surface heat flux cycle, is also a source of SM processes. SM restratification fluxes show distinctive signatures corresponding to both surface cooling and wind stress. The winter peak in SM activity in the Coral Sea is not in phase with the summer dominance of the mesoscale eddy kinetic energy in the region, implying that local surface layer forcing effects are more important for SM gene...