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Dynamics of a dense gravity current flowing over a corrugation
Mehmet Ilicak, Sonya Legg, Alistair Adcroft, Robert Hallberg
AOS, Princeton University
(Abstract received 12/17/2010 for session X)
ABSTRACT
In this study, we investigate the dynamics of a dense gravity currents over different sizes of ridges and canyons. We employ a high resolution idealized isopycnal model and perform a large number of experiments changing the aspect ratio of a ridge/canyon, the Coriolis parameter, the reduced gravity, the background slope and initial overflow thickness. Our experiments show that corrugations steer the plume downslope, and that ridges are more effective than canyons in transporting the overflow to the deep ocean. We find that a corrugation Burger number (Bu-c) can be used as a parameter to describe the flow over topography. In addition, we propose a new parameterization of mixing as a function of Bu-c that can be used to account for unresolved shear in coarse resolution models.
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2011 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida February 7 - 9, 2011