Lateral stirring is a basic oceanographic phenomenon affecting the distribution of physical, chemical, and biological fields. Eddy stirring at scales on the order of 100 km (the mesoscale) is fairly well understood and explicitly represented in modern eddy-resolving numerical models of global ocean circulation. The same cannot be said for...
The authors present inferences of diapycnal diffusivity from a compilation of over 5200 microstructure
profiles. As microstructure observations are sparse, these are supplemented with indirect measurements of
mixing obtained from (i) Thorpe-scale overturns from moored profilers, a finescale parameterization applied to
(ii) shipboard observations of upper-ocean shear, (iii) strain as...
Lateral stirring is a basic oceanographic phenomenon affecting the distribution of physical, chemical, and biological fields. Eddy stirring at scales on the order of 100 km (the mesoscale) is fairly well understood and explicitly represented in modern eddy-resolving numerical models of global ocean circulation. The same cannot be said for...
Intensive sampling of the deep Mediterranean outflow 70 km W of the Strait of Gibraltar reveals a strong, tidally modulated gravity current embedded with large-amplitude oscillations and energetic turbulence. The flow appears to be hydraulically controlled at a small topographic constriction, with turbulence and internal waves varying together and increasing...
Internal waves are often observed to break close to the seafloor topography that generates them, or from which they scatter. This breaking is often spectacular, with turbulent structures observed hundreds of meters above the seafloor, and driving turbulence dissipations and mixing up to 10,000 times open-ocean levels. This article provides...
Lateral stirring is a basic oceanographic phenomenon affecting the distribution of physical, chemical, and biological fields. Eddy stirring at scales on the order of 100 km (the mesoscale) is fairly well understood and explicitly represented in modern eddy-resolving numerical models of global ocean circulation. The same cannot be said for...
Surface tides are the heartbeat of the ocean. Because they are controlled by Earth's motion relative to other astronomical objects in our solar system, surface tides act like clockwork and generate highly deterministic ebb and flow familiar to all mariners. In contrast, baroclinic motions at tidal frequencies are much more...
Turbulence controls the composition of river plumes through mixing and alters the plume's trajectory by diffusing its momentum. While believed to play a crucial role in decelerating river-source waters, the turbulence stress in a near-field river plume has not previously been observationally quantified. In this study, finely resolved density, velocity,...
The three-dimensional (3D) double-ridge internal tide interference in the Luzon Strait in the South China
Sea is examined by comparing 3D and two-dimensional (2D) realistic simulations. Both the 3D simulations
and observations indicate the presence of 3D first-mode (semi)diurnal standing waves in the 3.6-km-deep
trench in the strait. As in...
Varied observations over Oregon’s continental shelf illustrate the
beauty and complexity of geophysical flows in coastal waters. Rapid, creative, and
sometimes fortuitous sampling from ships and moorings has allowed detailed looks
at boundary layer processes, internal waves (some extremely nonlinear), and coastal
currents, including how they interact. These processes drive...