ABSTRACT
The sea surface distributions of many biogeochemical tracers are highly correlated in space and time on meso (10 to 100 km) and smaller scales, but their scales of variability differ. Some tracers like sea surface chlorophyll (Chl) are patchier or finer scaled than others, such as sea surface temperature (SST) (Figure 14.1). This work aims to characterize the spatial distributions of various tracers in terms of a variance-based measure of their patchiness. Using a scaling argument and a numerical model, we relate the patchiness of a tracer distribution to the characteristic response time
τ
of the tracer to processes that alter its concentration in the upper ocean. This enables us to relate the distributions of different tracers in the upper ocean and provide an estimate for the relative size of the grid spacing needed to observe or model different tracers. We also suggest a scaling relationship to infer the mean rate of upwelling in a region from the mean vertical concentration profile of a tracer and
a priori
knowledge of the characteristic response time
τ
of the tracer.
