Linking small-scale salinity mixing and large-scale estuarine circulation

Both, the overturning circulation in the ocean and the exchange flow in an estuary are directly linked to the transformation of water masses caused by small-scale mixing. The integral Water Mass Transformation (WMT) framework formulates how diffusive fluxes between water masses of different tracer concentrations are associated with mass fluxes across iso-tracer surfaces. Relations between local dia-surface fluxes and small-scale mixing in terms of local tracer variance dissipation have been derived by Klingbeil and Henell (2023). In my talk I will explain and demonstrate these relations between local diahaline fluxes, small-scale salinity variance dissipation and the large-scale circulation in estuaries. Klingbeil, K. and E. Henell (2023) A Rigorous Derivation of the Water Mass Transformation Framework, the Relation between Mixing and Diasurface Exchange Flow, and Links to Recent Theories in Estuarine Research. JPO. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-23-0130.1