Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE)

Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is the kinetic energy per unit mass in turbulent velocity fluctuations, TKE = (u’^2 + v’^2 + w’^2)/2. Its budget balances shear and convective production against buoyancy work, transport, and viscous dissipation, and underlies the mixing schemes used in ocean models to set the eddy diffusivity. In the ocean surface mixed layer, wind shear, breaking surface waves, Langmuir turbulence, and convection all generate TKE that homogenizes the layer. Distinct from mesoscale eddy kinetic energy, TKE refers to the small-scale, three-dimensional turbulence measured by microstructure profilers through the dissipation rate epsilon.