Characterising the chaotic nature of ocean ventilation

DPhil student Graeme MacGilchrist‘s paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research in which we characterise the chaotic nature of ocean ventilation pathways through a filamentation number. The filamentation number quantifies the extent to which fluid parcels are stretched and folded over, analogous to layers of puff pasty being rolled out and folded by a baker. We find that the filamentation number if large everywhere in the North Atlantic and increases with depth, implying highly chaotic ventilation pathways.

The publication link will be posted once available but in the meantime please email [email protected] for a preprint.

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