Structure and drivers of ocean mixing north of Svalbard in summer and fall 2018

Koenig, Zoe; Kolås, Eivind H.; Fer, Ilker

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-365-2021

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-365-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-365-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

Research article

|

19 Feb 2021

Research article |

| 19 Feb 2021

Structure and drivers of ocean mixing north of Svalbard in summer and fall 2018

Zoe Koenig, Eivind H. Kolås, and Ilker Fer

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Final revised paper (published on 19 Feb 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Aug 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of Koenig et al. 2020: ‘Structure and drivers of ocean mixing north of Svalbard in summer and fall 2018’', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Sep 2020
- SC1: 'Authors’ initial response to Reviewer 1’s comments.', Ilker Fer, 05 Oct 2020
  - AC1: 'Response to referee #1', Zoé Koenig, 20 Nov 2020
RC2: 'Review of "Structure and drivers of ocean mixing north of Svalbard in summer and fall 2018"', Anonymous Referee #2, 07 Oct 2020
- AC2: 'Response to referee #2', Zoé Koenig, 20 Nov 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Zoé Koenig on behalf of the Authors (20 Nov 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (24 Nov 2020) by Bernadette Sloyan

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (12 Dec 2020)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (14 Dec 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Second review of Koenig et al. Ocean Science 2020

This manuscript presents a particularly interesting set of turbulence observations from north of Svalbard in the Arctic that cover the 2018 summer and autumn period. The authors investigate the vertical structure of mixing, heat fluxes and seasonal changes, and identify the processes driving the variability in the turbulence field. Both the wind and tidal supplies of energy are estimated with parameterizations derived and discussed. An attempt to extrapolate to the whole Eurasian Basin is made and interesting areas are identified that could be investigated in further work. The current lack of turbulence measurements in the Arctic is highlighted as the main limitation to pan-Arctic parameterization as well as the difficulty in accounting for lateral processes and fluxes, and for extreme events such as storms.

The authors have done a very good job at answering the comments from the first round of reviews. The manuscript structure has been reorganised. The many sections and parts are better linked together in the result and discussion sections. Some peripheral and sometimes confusing points raised in the first version have been removed.

The new version of the manuscript reads well, bringing to light the many contributions it makes to the literature on turbulence and mixing in the Arctic Ocean. I recommend that the manuscript is accepted as is.

My only request is to add one or two sentences at the end of the abstract to provide a broader perspective on the key findings of this work.

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Individual comment:
L5 and L460: In the abstract you state ‘Estimates of vertical turbulent heat flux from the Atlantic Water layer up to the mixed layer […] average to 8 W m-2, accounting for […]’, while in the conclusions you state ‘[…] the average heat loss from the Atlantic Water layer due to vertical mixing is about 5 Wm-2 and accounts for […]’. The value of 8W/m2 is also stated L 412. So what is the average, 8 or 5 W/m2? Please correct values where needed.

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ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (18 Jan 2021) by Bernadette Sloyan

AR by Zoé Koenig on behalf of the Authors (19 Jan 2021) Manuscript

Short summary

The Arctic Ocean is a major sink for heat and salt for the global ocean. Ocean mixing contributes to this sink by mixing the Atlantic and Pacific waters with surrounding waters. We investigate the drivers of ocean mixing north of Svalbard based on observations collected during two research cruises in 2018 as part of the Nansen Legacy project. We found that wind and tidal forcing are the main drivers and that 1 % of the Atlantic Water heat loss can be attributed to vertical turbulent mixing.