Analyzing Mixing and Water Mass Transformations in Ocean Models

Mixing and Water Mass Transformations (WMT) in the ocean are key to the dynamics, ranging from small-scale dissipation to large-scale overturning circulations. Therefore, the quantification of mixing and WMT in ocean models is of fundamental importance and enables a more detailed analysis of oceanic processes. In this presentation different diagnostic approaches developed during the last years are reviewed and compared. These diagnostic methods also offer to investigate the contributions originating from discretization errors in the numerical transport schemes, causing spurious numerical mixing and spurious overturning circulations. Subtleties of the methods and recent refinements will be presented to provide an accurate analysis framework that is consistent with analytical theories and the discrete model equations.