NORi: An ML-Augmented Ocean Boundary Layer Parameterization

arXiv:2512.04452v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: NORi is a machine learning (ML) parameterization of ocean boundary layer turbulence that is physics-based and augmented with neural networks. NORi stands for neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs) Richardson number (Ri) closure. The physical parameterization is controlled by a Richardson number-dependent diffusivity and viscosity. The neural ODEs are trained to capture the entrainment through the base of the boundary layer, which cannot be represented with a local diffusive closure. The parameterization is trained using large-eddy simulations in an “a posteriori” fashion, where parameters are calibrated with a loss function that explicitly depends on the actual time-integrated variables of interest rather than the instantaneous subgrid fluxes, which are inherently noisy. NORi conserves tracers by design, uses realistic nonlinear thermodynamics, and demonstrates excellent prediction and generalization capabilities in capturing entrainment dynamics under different convective strengths, background stratifications, rotation, and wind forcings. NORi is shown to simulate the seasonal evolution of the boundary layer at Ocean Weather Station Papa with similar performance to the state-of-the-art two-equation $k$-$epsilon$ closure. When implemented in a double-gyre simulation, it is numerically stable for at least 100 years, despite only being trained on two-day horizons, and can be run with time steps as long as one hour. The highly expressive neural networks, combined with a physically rigorous base closure, prove to be a robust paradigm for designing parameterizations for climate models: data required and training cost are drastically reduced, inference performance can be directly optimized as a primary objective, and numerical stability is implicitly promoted through training.