Data from three micronetworks with eddy correlation data and three additional micronetworks without eddy correlation data are analyzed to study the spatial variability of surface air temperature in complex terrain. A simple similarity relationship is constructed to relate the spatial variation of air temperature along the slope to the thermal...
Flux estimates show that upward mixing of the deep-water nitrate pool accounts for more than 85% of the total new nitrogen input to the euphotic zone of Crater Lake. Because measured primary productivity (360 mg C m-2 d-1) is 10–30 times higher than a level supported solely by the input...
Turbulent mixing of salt is examined in a shallow salt wedge estuary with strong fluvial and tidal forcing. A numerical model of the Merrimack River estuary is used to quantify turbulent stress, shear production, and buoyancy flux. Little mixing occurs during flood tides despite strong velocities because bottom boundary layer...
Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a shear layer with salt-fingering-favorable stratification have been performed for different Richardson numbers Ri and density ratios R[subscript]p. In the absence of shear (Ri = oo), the primary instability is square planform salt fingering, alternating cells of rising and sinking fluid. In the presence of...
Although the process of restratification of the ocean surface layer at the equator following nighttime convection is similar in many ways to the process at midlatitudes, there are important differences. A composite day calculated from 15 days of consistent conditions at 140°W on the equator was compared with midlatitude observations...
Motivated by the tendency of high-Prandtl-number fluids to form sharp density interfaces, the authors investigate the evolution of Holmboe waves in a stratified shear flow through direct numerical simulation. Like their better-known cousins, Kelvin–Helmholtz waves, Holmboe waves lead the flow to a turbulent state in which rapid irreversible mixing takes...
Tidal mixing over a slope was explored using moored time series observations on Kaena Ridge extending northwest from Oahu, Hawaii, during the Survey component of the Hawaii Ocean Mixing Experiment (HOME). A mooring was instrumented to sample the velocity and density field of the lower 500 m of the water...
Satellite infrared imagery and coastal meteorological data for March 1984 through February 1985 are used to estimate the net annual surface heat flux for the northern Gulf of California. The average annual surface heat flux for the area north of Guaymas and Santa Rosalia is estimated to be +74 W...
We examine the thermal effects of seamount subduction. Seamount subduction may cause transient changes in oceanic crust hydrogeology and plate boundary fault position. Prior to subduction, seamounts provide high‐permeability pathways between the basaltic crustal aquifer and overlying ocean that can focus fluid flow and efficiently cool the oceanic crust. As...
The vertical structure of coastal-trapped disturbances in several idealized models of a stably stratified lower atmosphere is examined. The vertical structure and phase speeds of the trapped modes depend on the resting stratification and the height of the orographic step. The presence of a stable layer above the boundary layer...