FROM PLANET-SCALE TO PLANKTON-SCALE, submesoscale processes play a critical role in the ocean. This dynamical regime, which incorporates ocean processes on lengthscales of 1-30 km, now lies at the forefront of oceanographic research. Submesoscale fronts act as “lungs” through which heat, carbon, and oxygen are exchanged between the atmosphere and the deep ocean. Kilometer-scale filaments strongly enhance the lateral dispersion of nutrients, fish larvae, and ocean-borne pollutants. And submesoscale vortices modulate the ocean food chain from phytoplankton to top predators.

Using ultra-high-resolution observations from land, sea, and space, we are now beginning to unravel the submesoscale tangle of filaments, fronts and vortices and understand their role in mixing and dispersion in the ocean.

Publications:

J.-P. Peng, N.L. Jones, M.D. Rayson, M. Schmitt, L. Umlauf, C. Whitwell, S.R. Keating, C. Shakespeare, G.N. Ivey. (2025). Interactions between diurnal warm layers and surface-layer fronts. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans 130(1): e2024JC021380. link

M. Archer, A. Schaeffer, S.R. Keating, M. Roughan, R. Holmes, L. Siegelman (2020). Observations of submesoscale instability within the mesoscale eddy field of the Tasman Sea. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 50 (5): 1509-1529. link

M.R. Archer, S.R. Keating, M. Roughan, W.E. Johns, R. Lumpkin, F. Beron-Vera, L. K. Shay (2018). The kinematic similarity of two western boundary currents revealed by sustained high-resolution observations. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45 (12): 6176-6185 link (AGU Editors’ highlight)

M. Archer, M. Roughan, S.R Keating and A. Schaeffer (2017). On the variability of the East Australian Current: jet structure, meandering, and influence on shelf circulation. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans. 122 (11): 8464–8481 link

A. Mantovanelli, S.R. Keating, L.R. Wyatt, M. Roughan and A. Schaeffer (2017). Eulerian and Lagrangian characterization of two counter-rotating submesoscale eddies in a western boundary current. J. Geophys. Res. 122 (6): 4902-4921 link

E. van Sebille, S. Waterman, A. Barthel, R. Lumpkin, S.R. Keating, C. Fogwill,
and C. Turney (2015). Pairwise surface drifter dispersion in the Western Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean. J. Geophys. Res. 120 (10): 6769–6781 link