This article is a perspective on the recently discovered realm of submesoscale currents in the ocean. They are intermediate-scale flow structures in the form of density fronts and filaments, topographic wakes and persistent coherent vortices at the surface and throughout the interior. They are created from mesoscale eddies and strong currents, and they provide a dynamical conduit for energy transfer towards microscale dissipation and diapycnal mixing. Consideration is given to their generation mechanisms, instabilities, life cycles, disruption of approximately diagnostic force balance (e.g. geostrophy), turbulent cascades, internal-wave interactions, and transport and dispersion of materials. At a fundamental level, more questions remain than answers, implicating a programme for further research.

Under the influences of stable density stratification and the earth’s rotation, large-scale flows in the ocean and atmosphere have a mainly balanced dynamics—sometimes called the slow manifold—in the sense that there are diagnostic hydrostatic and gradient-wind momentum balances that constrain the fluid acceleration. The nonlinear balance equations are a widely successful, approximate model for this regime, and mathematically explicit limits of their time integrability have been identified. It is hypothesized that these limits are indicative, at least approximately, of the transition from the larger-scale regime of inverse energy cascades by anisotropic flows to the smaller-scale regime of forward energy cascade to dissipation by more nearly isotropic flows and intermittently breaking inertia–gravity waves. This paper analyzes the particular example of an unbalanced instability of a balanced, horizontally uniform, vertically sheared current, as it occurs within the Boussinesq equations. This ageostrophic, anticyclonic, baroclinic instability is investigated with an emphasis on how it relates to the breakdown of balance in the neighborhood of loss of balanced integrability and on how its properties compare with other examples of ageostrophic anticyclonic instability of rotating, stratified, horizontally sheared currents. It is also compared with the more familiar types of instability for a vertically sheared current: balanced (geostrophic) baroclinic instability, centrifugal instability, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability.

Oceanic surface gravity waves have a mean Lagrangian motion, the Stokes drift. The dynamics of wind-driven, basin-scale oceanic currents in the presence of Stokes drift are modified by the addition of so-called vortex forces and wave-induced material advection, as well by wave-averaged effects in the surface boundary conditions for the dynamic pressure, sea level, and vertical velocity. Some theoretical analyses previously have been made for the gravity wave influences on boundary-layer motions, including the Ekman currents. The present paper extends this theory to the basin-scale, depth-integrated circulation in a bounded domain. It is shown that the Sverdrup circulation relation, with the meridional transport proportional to the curl of the surface wind stress, applies to Lagrangian transport, while the associated Eulerian transport is shown to have a component opposite to the Stokes-drift transport. A wave-induced correction to the relation between sea level and surface dynamic pressure is als... Abstract Oceanic surface gravity waves have a mean Lagrangian motion, the Stokes drift. The dynamics of wind-driven, basin-scale oceanic currents in the presence of Stokes drift are modified by the addition of so-called vortex forces and wave-induced material advection, as well by wave-averaged effects in the surface boundary conditions for the dynamic pressure, sea level, and vertical velocity. Some theoretical analyses previously have been made for the gravity wave influences on boundary-layer motions, including the Ekman currents. The present paper extends this theory to the basin-scale, depth-integrated circulation in a bounded domain. It is shown that the Sverdrup circulation relation, with the meridional transport proportional to the curl of the surface wind stress, applies to Lagrangian transport, while the associated Eulerian transport is shown to have a component opposite to the Stokes-drift transport. A wave-induced correction to the relation between sea level and surface dynamic pressure is als...

Climate models exhibit high sensitivity in some respects, such as for differences in predicted precipitation changes under global warming. Despite successful large-scale simulations, regional climatology features prove difficult to constrain toward observations, with challenges including high-dimensionality, computationally expensive simulations, and ambiguity in the choice of objective function. In an atmospheric General Circulation Model forced by observed sea surface temperature or coupled to a mixed-layer ocean, many climatic variables yield rms-error objective functions that vary smoothly through the feasible parameter range. This smoothness occurs despite nonlinearity strong enough to reverse the curvature of the objective function in some parameters, and to imply limitations on multimodel ensemble means as an estimator of global warming precipitation changes. Low-order polynomial fits to the model output spatial fields as a function of parameter (quadratic in model field, fourth-order in objective function) yield surprisingly successful metamodels for many quantities and facilitate a multiobjective optimization approach. Tradeoffs arise as optima for different variables occur at different parameter values, but with agreement in certain directions. Optima often occur at the limit of the feasible parameter range, identifying key parameterization aspects warranting attention—here the interaction of convection with free tropospheric water vapor. Analytic results for spatial fields of leading contributions to the optimization help to visualize tradeoffs at a regional level, e.g., how mismatches between sensitivity and error spatial fields yield regional error under minimization of global objective functions. The approach is sufficiently simple to guide parameter choices and to aid intercomparison of sensitivity properties among climate models.

Six recent Langmuir turbulence parameterization schemes and five traditional schemes are implemented in a common single‐column modeling framework and consistently compared. These schemes are tested in scenarios versus matched large eddy simulations, across the globe with realistic forcing (JRA55‐do, WAVEWATCH‐III simulated waves) and initial conditions (Argo), and under realistic conditions as observed at ocean moorings. Traditional non‐Langmuir schemes systematically underpredict large eddy simulation vertical mixing under weak convective forcing, while Langmuir schemes vary in accuracy. Under global, realistic forcing Langmuir schemes produce 6% (−1% to 14% for 90% confidence) or 5.2 m (−0.2 m to 17.4 m for 90% confidence) deeper monthly mean mixed layer depths than their non‐Langmuir counterparts, with the greatest differences in extratropical regions, especially the Southern Ocean in austral summer. Discrepancies among Langmuir schemes are large (15% in mixed layer depth standard deviation over the mean): largest under wave‐driven turbulence with stabilizing buoyancy forcing, next largest under strongly wave‐driven conditions with weak buoyancy forcing, and agreeing during strong convective forcing. Non‐Langmuir schemes disagree with each other to a lesser extent, with a similar ordering. Langmuir discrepancies obscure a cross‐scheme estimate of the Langmuir effect magnitude under realistic forcing, highlighting limited understanding and numerical deficiencies. Maps of the regions and seasons where the greatest discrepancies occur are provided to guide further studies and observations.