Chaotic Stirring in the Ocean

A view from the top showing an idealized double gyre.  The blue and red curves are stable and unstable manifolds:  they tangle about each other forming lobes (shaded blue) containing fluid that is being exchanged between the two gyres.  The corresponding parcel trajectories are chaotic.

The stable and unstable manifolds of the surface circulation in the Philippine Archipelago from a numerical model.  The most rapid stirring occurs in the regions of the dark, intersecting contours.

Stable manifolds of a simulated Philippine Sea dipole, spunup by a coastal wind jet.



Rypina, I., L. J. Pratt, J. Pullen, J. Levin, and A. Gordon, 2011.  Chaotic Advection in an Archipelago.  Journal of Physical Oceanography, early online release; doi: 0.1175/2011JPO4498.1.