Differential diffusion: an oceanographic primer

Even where mean gradients of temperature T and salinity S are both stabilizing, it is possible for the larger molecular diffusivity of T to result in differential diffusion, the preferential transfer of T relative to S. The present note reviews existing evidence of differential diffusion as provided by laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and oceanic observations. Given potentially serious implications for proper interpretation of estimates of diapycnal density diffusivity from both ocean microscale measurements and ocean tracer release experiments, as well as the sensitivity of predictive global ocean models to this diffusive parameter, it is essential that this process be better understood in the oceanographic context.