Measurements of upper ocean shear made during the Mixed Layer Dynamics Experiment (MILDEX) provide evidence of large horizontal scale motion at near‐inertial frequency. The measurements consist of shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiles. Four large‐scale spatial surveys of 2–4 days duration were made by the R/V Wecoma as a set of...
The conventional view of equatorial dynamics requires that the zonal equatorial wind stress be balanced, in the mean, by the vertical integral of “large-scale” terms, such as the zonal pressure gradient, mesoscale eddy flux, and mean advection, over the upper few hundred meters. It is usually presumed that the surface...
Moored observations of currents and temperatures made in the upper 600 m on
eddy-resolving scales over a 2-year period are used to examine the spatial and temporal
characteristics of the California Current mesoscale circulation. The observations were
made at three principal longitudes: 124°W, 126°W, and 128°W in the vicinity of...
In November-December 1984 we carried out an intensive 12-day upper ocean sampling program on
the equator at 140°W as part of the Tropic Heat Experiment. From our observations we constructed
hourly averaged profiles of temperature, salinity, σ₁, turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate, and horizontal
velocity. These data were used to...
From a comprehensive set of upper ocean measurements made during a moderate El Niño in boreal spring 1987, we reassess the role of turbulence in transporting momentum vertically at the equator. An examination of the terms in the vertically integrated zonal momentum equations indicates that on short time scales the...