Breaking of Internal Waves and Turbulent Dissipation in an Anticyclonic Mode Water Eddy.

A 4-month glider mission was analyzed to assess turbulent dissipation in an anticyclonic eddy at the western boundary of the subtropical North Atlantic. The eddy (radius ≈ 60 km) had a core of low potential vorticity between 100 and 450 m, with maximum radial velocities of 0.5ms-1 and Rossby number ≈-0.1. Turbulent dissipation was inferred from vertical water velocities derived from the glider flight model. Dissipation was suppressed in the eddy core (ε ≈ 5 X 10-10W kg-1) and enhanced below it (>10-9W kg-1). Elevated dissipation was coincident with quasiperiodic structures in the vertical velocity and pressure perturbations, suggesting internal waves as the drivers of dissipation. Aheuristic ray-tracing approximation was used to investigate the wave-eddy interactions leading to turbulent dissipation. Ray-tracing simulations were consistent with two types of wave-eddy interactions that may induce dissipation: the trapping of near-inertial wave energy by the eddy's relative vorticity, or the entry of an internal tide (generated at the nearby continental slope) to a critical layer in the eddy shear. The latter scenario suggests that the intense mesoscale field characterizing the western boundaries of ocean basins might act as a "leaky wall" controlling the propagation of internal tides into the basin's interior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]