Turbulent mixing from breaking oceanic internal waves drives a vertical transport of water, heat and other climatically important tracers in the ocean, thereby playing an important role in shaping the circulation and distributions of heat and carbon within the climate system. However, linking internal wave-driven mixing to its impacts on climate poses a formidable challenge, since it requires understanding of the complex life cycle of internal waves — including generation, propagation and breaking into turbulence — and knowledge of the spatio-temporal variability of these processes in the diverse, rapidly evolving oceanic environment. In this Review, we trace the energy pathways from tides, winds and geostrophic currents to internal wave mixing, connecting this mixing with the global climate system. Additionally, we discuss avenues for future work, including understanding energy transfer processes within the internal wave field, how internal waves can be modified by background currents and how internal wave mixing is integrated within the global climate system.

破坏海洋内部波浪产生的湍流混合驱动海洋中水，热量和其他对气候重要的示踪物的垂直传输，从而在塑造气候系统中热量和碳的循环和分布方面发挥了重要作用。但是，将内部波浪驱动的混合与其对气候的影响联系起来构成了一个艰巨的挑战，因为它需要了解内部波浪的复杂生命周期，包括生成，传播和分解成湍流，并且需要了解内部波浪的时空变异性。在迅速变化的海洋环境中的过程。在这篇评论中，我们追踪了从潮汐，风和地转流到内部波浪混合的能量路径，并将这种混合与全球气候系统联系起来。此外，我们讨论了未来工作的途径，