Abyssal Upwelling and Downwelling Driven by Near-Boundary Mixing

Abstract

A buoyancy and volume budget analysis of bottom-intensified mixing in the abyssal ocean reveals simple expressions for the strong upwelling in very thin continental boundary layers and the interior near-boundary downwelling in the stratified ocean interior. For a given amount of Antarctic Bottom Water that is upwelled through neutral density surfaces in the abyssal ocean (between 2000 and 5000 m), up to 5 times this volume flux is upwelled in narrow, turbulent, sloping bottom boundary layers, while up to 4 times the net upward volume transport of Bottom Water flows downward across isopycnals in the near-boundary stratified ocean interior. These ratios are a direct result of a buoyancy budget with respect to buoyancy surfaces, and these ratios are calculated from knowledge of the stratification in the abyss along with the assumed e-folding height that characterizes the decrease of the magnitude of the turbulent diapycnal buoyancy flux away from the seafloor. These strong diapycnal upward and downward volume transports are confined to a few hundred kilometers of the continental boundaries, with no appreciable diapycnal motion in the bulk of the interior ocean.