Comparison of Turbulence Parameterization Methods in an Upper Ocean Layer Model

Abstract

When modeling processes in the ocean, the issue of describing turbulent exchange inevitably arises. Today, there are numerous methods for parameterizing turbulence in the upper layer of the ocean. The most common and established closure methods for hydrodynamic equations are considered by introducing turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent mixing length, and a formulation of the ocean general circulation model is provided. A series of experiments were conducted, each using different combinations of equations for turbulence parameterization, which also utilized data from The Copernicus Global 1/12° Oceanic and Sea Ice GLORYS12 Reanalysis and HYCOM + NCODA Global 1/12° Reanalysis to describe the advective components of scalar quantities. The comparison of model data was made with observational data obtained from automatic marine stations of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. It is shown that using more complex forms of the turbulent kinetic energy equation, as well as additional equations for calculating the turbulent mixing length, does not lead to unambiguous improvements in results. It is also shown that the same combinations of equations can yield opposite results in terms of quality.