A hydrodynamic model incorporating a self‐consistent treatment of ocean self‐attraction and loading (SAL), and a physically based parameterization of internal tide (IT) drag, is used to assess how accurately barotropic tides can be modeled without benefit of data, and to explore tidal energetics in the last glacial maximum (LGM). M2...
Measurements of tidal currents on the central Oregon shelf are available from several sources, including recent high frequency (HF) coastal radar and Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) deployments, and historical current moorings. In this paper we use a generalized inverse (GI) approach to compare these data to, and then assimilate them...
Tidal energy dissipation is estimated for eight semi‐diurnal and diurnal constituents using a global inverse solution constrained by TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data. Very similar spatial patterns are obtained for all semi‐diurnal constituents, with about one third of the total dissipation occurring in the deep ocean over rough topography. Maps for diurnal...
Hydrographic observations made with an undulating vehicle carrying a CTD and concurrent shipboard ADCP velocity observations over a 12‐day period are combined to investigate vertical mixing and cross‐frontal fluxes on the Northern Flank of Georges Bank. The CTD density time series is analyzed to detect the presence of vertical overturns,...
An error in the calculation of the baroclinic pressure gradient term in the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) was identified while modeling the M₂ tidal current near its critical latitude in the southern Weddell Sea. The error arises from the present calculation of density, which involves the subtraction of a background...
Energy flux is a fundamental quantity for understanding internal wave generation, propagation, and dissipation. In this paper, the estimation of internal wave energy fluxes <u′p′> from ocean observations that may be sparse in either time or depth are considered. Sampling must be sufficient in depth to allow for the estimation...
The generalized inverse of a regional model is used to estimate barotropic tidal dissipation along the Hawaiian Ridge. The model, based on the linear shallow-water equations, incorporates parameterizations for the dissipation of energy via friction in the bottom boundary layer and form drag due to internal waves generated at topographic...
In most estuarine systems it is assumed that the dominant along-channel momentum balance is between the integrated pressure gradient and bed stress. Scaling the amplitude of the estuarine circulation based on this balance has been shown to have predictive skill. However, a number of authors recently highlighted important nonlinear processes...
Observations of turbulence, internal waves, and subinertial flow were made over a steep, corrugated continental slope off Virginia during May–June 1998. At semidiurnal frequencies, a convergence of low-mode, onshore energy flux is approximately balanced by a divergence of high-wavenumber offshore energy flux. This conversion occurs in a region where the...
Winter stratification on Oregon’s continental shelf often produces a near-bottom layer of dense fluid that acts as an internal waveguide upon which nonlinear internal waves propagate. Shipboard profiling and bottom lander observations capture disturbances that exhibit properties of internal solitary waves, bores, and gravity currents. Wavelike pulses are highly turbulent...
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...
The subtidal salt balance and the mechanisms driving the downgradient salt flux in the Hudson River estuary are investigated using measurements from a cross-channel mooring array of current meters, temperature and conductivity sensors, and cross-channel and along-estuary shipboard surveys obtained during the spring of 2002. Steady (subtidal) vertical shear dispersion,...
Barotropic tidal currents flowing over rough topography may be slowed by two bottom boundary–related processes: tangential stress of the bottom boundary layer, which is generally well represented by a quadratic drag law, and normal stress from bottom pressure, known as form drag. Form drag is rarely estimated from oceanic observations...
Shelf break conditions and alongshore flow off northwestern Australia are studied during the strongly evaporative conditions of austral winter 2003. Present results, along with those of previous authors, confirm that a poleward, fresh Leeuwin current core is normally found near the shelf break. Salinity increases alongshore toward the southwest. Although...
Observations of currents, hydrography, and turbulence provide unambiguous evidence for hydraulic control of flow over an isolated three-dimensional topographic feature on Oregon’s continental shelf. The flow becomes critical at the crest of the bank, forming a strong supercritical downslope flow in the lower layer. Farther downstream, internal hydraulic jumps form...
Satellite observations of ice motion are combined with model estimates of low‐level winds and surface wind stress to provide evidence for atmospheric control of sea‐ice motion through Nares Strait, between Ellesmere Island and Greenland, during two periods in 2004. The results suggest that ice flux through the strait, and its...
The connectivity among straits of the northwest Pacific marginal seas is investigated with a primitive-equation ocean circulation model simulated for 10 years from 1994 to 2003. Over the simulation interval the temporal and spatial means and variations of the model sea surface temperature are comparable to those of the satellite...
Air-sea interaction at ocean fronts and eddies exhibits positive correlation between sea surface temperature (SST), wind speed, and heat fluxes out of the ocean, indicating that the ocean is forcing the atmosphere. This contrasts with larger scale climate modes where the negative correlations suggest that the atmosphere is driving the...
During boreal summer and fall, there is a strong southerly boundary layer flow across the equator into the east Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The modulation of this flow on synoptic to seasonal time scales is studied using an index of meridional pressure difference between the equator and the ITCZ...
The Office of Naval Research's Coupled Boundary Layers and Air–Sea Transfer (CBLAST) program is being conducted to investigate the processes that couple the marine boundary layers and govern the exchange of heat, mass, and momentum across the air–sea interface. CBLAST-LOW was designed to investigate these processes at the low-wind extreme...