Impact of Salt Finger Convection on the Structure of the Oceanic Thermohalocline

Abstract

One of the key problems of physical oceanology is the search for effective global mechanisms that can result in formation and sustainability of the oceanic thermohalocline, which accumulates huge amounts of heat in the middle latitudes. The study revealed a genetic relationship between this element of macroscale stratification and the intensity of vertical mixing of waters caused by double diffusion in the form of salt fingers. It has been established that the more orderly work in the ocean water column of such a small-scale process as convection of salt fingers transforms the structure of the thermohaline, due to which the transition from warm and saline surface waters to underlying waters occurs not abruptly, but rather gradually, through a stationary transition layer: the oceanic thermohalocline. The results support our viewpoint on the salt finger convection as a climate-generating factor.