Spiralling Inverse Method: A new inverse method to estimate ocean mixing - Data

Here we introduce the Spiralling Inverse Method (SIM) that provides estimates of the small-scale and mesoscale mixing strength. The SIM uses a vertical integral over a balance between the watermass transformation equation and the thermal wind equation. The result is an equation where all terms, except for the mixing strengths, can be obtained from hydrographic data of temperature and salinity. As an advantage, the SIM estimates the mixing strengths without the need of further knowledge of a reference velocity or streamfunction. Here we apply the SIM to a small region in the North Atlantic. We find that the estimates obtained by the SIM compare well to observations and other (inverse) estimates of the mixing strength. The SIM therefore has potential to improve and constrain parameterizations used for climate and ecosystem modelling using readily available hydrographic data. This dataset contains the final results as published in the accompanying article.