Change of Multifractal Thermal Characteristics in the Western Philippine Sea Upper Layer During Internal Wave-Soliton Propagation

Abstract

Upper layer (above 140 m depth) temperature in the western Philippine Sea near Taiwan was sampled using a coastal monitoring buoy (CMB) with attached 15 thermistors during July 28 - August 7, 2005. The data were collected every 10 min at 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 m using the CMB sensors, and every 15 sec at 15 different depths between 25 m and 140 m. Internal waves and solitons were identified from the time-depth plot of the temperature field. Without the internal waves and solitons, the power spectra, structure functions, and singular measures (representing the intermittency) of temperature field satisfy the power law with multi-scale characteristics at all depths. The internal waves do not change the basic characteristics of the multifractal structure. However, the internal solitons change the power exponent of the power spectra drastically especially in the low wave number domain; break down the power law of the structure function; and increase the intermittency parameter. The physical mechanisms causing these different effects need to be further explored.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA478879

Entities

People

  • Chung-ping Hsieh
  • Peter Cheng Chu

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Chemical Properties
  • Frequency
  • High Resolution
  • Internal Waves
  • North Pacific Ocean
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Philippine Sea
  • Power Spectra
  • Ridges
  • Solitons
  • South China Sea
  • Temperature Gradients
  • Topography
  • Wave Propagation
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Oceanography.