The wind speed and significant wave height (H1/3) dependencies of the sea state is in altimeter estimates of sea level, expressed in the form ∆hSSB=bH1/3, are examined from least squares analysis of 21 cycles of collinear TOPEX data. The bias coefficient b is found to increase in magnitude with increasing...
Altimetric data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON mission will be used for studies of global ocean circulation and marine geophysics. However, it is first necessary to remove the ocean tides, which are aliased in the raw data. The tides are constrained by two distinct types of information: the hydrodynamic equations which the...
Alias periods and wavelengths for the M2, S2, N2, K1, O1, and P1 tidal constituents are calculated for TOPEX/POSEIDON. Alias wavelengths calculated in previous studies are shown to be in error, and a correct method is presented. With the exception of the K1 constituent, all of these tidal aliases for...
The island of Tahiti, the largest in French Polynesia, comprises two major volcanoes aligned NW-SE, parallel with the general trend of the Society Islands hotspot track. Rocks form this volcanic system are basalts transitional to tholeiites, alkali basalts, basanites, picrites, and evolved lavas. Through K-Ar radiometric dating we have established...
Data from the Hydrological and Atmospheric Pilot Experiment-Modélisation du Bilan Hydrigue (HAPEX-MOBILHY) field program and results from a one-dimensional model of the soil and atmospheric boundary layer are analyzed to study the daytime evolution of the relative humidity at the boundary layer top. This evolution is thought to control the...
Carbon isotopically based estimates of CO₂ levels have been generated from a record of the photosynthetic fractionation of ¹³C (≡εp) in a central equatorial Pacific sediment core that spans the last ~255 ka. Contents of ¹³C in phytoplanktonic biomass were determined by analysis of C37 alkadienones. These compounds are exclusive...
This study relates surface fluxes to remotely sensed variables over well-defined variations of surface wetness and vegetation. The surface fluxes are estimated from repeated Twin Otter aircraft flights at 33 m above the surface after correcting for advection and local storage between the aircraft level and the surface. An extensive...
The decay of a downward propagating near-inertial wave was observed over four days. During this short period, the energy of the near-inertial wave decreased by 70%. The shear layers produced by the wave were regions of enhanced turbulent dissipation rates. The authors estimate that 44% of the observed change in...
The divergence theorem in its usual form applies only to suitably smooth vector fields. For vector fields which are merely piecewise smooth, as is natural at a boundary between regions with different physical properties, one must patch together the divergence theorem applied separately in each region. We give an elegant...
Practical hydrostatic ocean models are often restricted to statically stable configurations by the use of a convective adjustment. A common way to do this is to assign an infinite boat conductivity to the water at a given level if the water column should become statically unstable. This is implemented in...