Kinetic Energy in the Western Arctic Ocean: Vertical Structure Partitioned by Horizontal Scale

Kinetic energy is an important metric of ocean circulation that encompasses mean currents, mesoscale and submesoscale stirring velocities, and smaller‐scale processes such as internal wave motions. Kinetic energy of the sea ice cover and in the upper 250 m of the Arctic Ocean is investigated in the Beaufort Gyre region using more than 12,000 velocity profiles obtained from Ice‐Tethered Profiler with Velocity platforms that transit spatially through the ocean. Kinetic energy is partitioned between the near‐inertial component, and with a horizontal scale from 7 km to greater than 480 km. Across scales, kinetic energy is characterized by four distinct vertical structures associated with: near‐inertial motions, 7–30 km scales that are within a factor of 2 of the Rossby Radius, 30–480 km scales largely reflective of mesoscale motions, and scales larger than 480 km associated with mean velocities. At all scales, variability in kinetic energy was of the same order of magnitude as average kinetic energy. Kinetic energy at scales less than 30 km combined with the near‐inertial component contained 20%–50% of total kinetic energy, with the largest fraction within the surface layer. Within the mixed layer and for all scales less than 480 km, kinetic energy was elevated for 0%–15% and 15%–80% ice concentration conditions compared to full ice cover. This view of kinetic energy across horizontal scales can be directly compared to numerical models at a range of horizontal resolutions, and has implications for circulation beneath an evolving sea ice cover.