Raffaele Marino is a physicist whose research includes turbulence in space plasmas and fluids with density stratification. A first-authored study investigated intense vertical drafts using direct numerical simulation of equations with the Boussinesq approximation. In some simulated regimes, roughly of the volume accounted for as much as of the total dissipation.[ref]
These figures concern the modeled flows, rather than a universal measured fraction of the ocean. They illustrate why the average can hide strong spatial concentration. Dividing the two fractions gives : the active region's mean dissipation density is five times the whole-volume mean. The remaining supplies the other half, so its mean is only times the whole-volume mean. The contrast between the two regions is consequently ninefold.
The result gives an illuminating connection between intermittency and physical mixing: a relatively small region can dominate energy conversion. The simulations test a proposed mechanism for variability; identifying the same mechanism in a particular environment also requires observations of that environment.
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