A paper by Dr Caue Lazaneo (a former PhD student in Tandon Lab) has just been published in JGR-Ocean titled “Submesoscale Coherent Vortices in the South Atlantic Ocean: A Pathway for Energy Dissipation” with Prof Amit Tandon as one of the co-authors. This paper is motivated by observations during summer 2017 aboard R/V Alpha-Crucis as a part of “Islands” experiment. This paper shows the role of seamounts in the generation of submesoscale features due to the interaction of the rich mesoscale eddy field with the local topography. The paper could be found here.

Congratulations Caue and Prof Tandon!

A plain language summary of the paper appears below:
The interaction between topography and oceanic flows results in the development of small-scale turbulent phenomena. The occurrence of such phenomena is significant for the ocean energy balance due to energy dissipation, which occurs on spatial scales smaller than a centimeter. In this study, we describe, for the first time in the western South Atlantic Ocean, the physics of two adjacent submesoscale coherent vortices in the vicinity of the Vitória-Trindade Ridge. These vortices have radii of 12 and 16 km and a subsurface signature with intensified velocity and weak stratification. Since this type of vortex has no surface expression, it is challenging to detect it due to its small horizontal scale. Microstructure measurements collected by a ship inside and outside the vortex enable us to evaluate, for the first time, its influence on energy dissipation and ocean mixing.