Autonomy Tea Talk

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 - 4:00pm

Event Calendar Category

Other LIDS Events

Speaker Name

Shirui Peng

Affiliation

EAPS

Building and Room number

32-D650

Building and Room Number

LIDS Lounge

"Multiscale Interactions in the Oceanic Mixed Layer: Insights from Large-Eddy Simulations"

The oceanic mixed layer is characterized by multiscale interactions ranging from the kilometer-scale turbulence typical of geostrophic turbulence down to micro-scale turbulence generated by shear and convection. However, due to the large scale separation of these phenomena, understanding energy transfers among oceanic mesoscale processes down to microscopic turbulence remains a significant challenge. We present large-eddy simulations that resolve multiscale interactions within the oceanic mixed layer, encompassing boundary layer turbulence, submesoscale, and mesoscale processes. We compare hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic models featuring strong convergence zones, distinct warm and cold temperature fronts, and surface forcing. We analyze the spatial and spectral properties of temperature, velocity, and vorticity fields, and decompose these fields to investigate multiscale momentum and buoyancy fluxes. These insights aim to enhance parameterizations for multiscale dynamics in large-scale ocean models, contributing to more accurate predictions of ocean behavior and energy distribution under climate change.

Shirui Peng is a postdoc in Professor Abigail Bodner’s group at the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Previously, he was a PhD student at Caltech, advised by Professor Jörn Callies. He is interested in climate and sustainability, inverse problem, and numerical modeling.

About Autonomy Tea Talks:
Tea talks are 20-minute-long informal talks for the purpose of sharing ideas and making others aware about some of the topics that may be of interest to the autonomy audience at MIT.
The session is followed by light refreshments.
If you would like to present at the Autonomy Tea Talks, please sign up here
If you are interested in serving on the committee, please email - lids_autonomy_teas[at]mit[dot]edu