Study of the Temperature and Salinity Fine-Scale Structure in the Ocean

Abstract

This award supported preliminary simulations necessary to aid in the planning stages of the Scalable Lateral Mixing and Coherent Turbulence DRI. The PI performed a series of simulations using a high-resolution model of mesoscale stirring of submesoscale features. In particular, the model used a series of baroclinically unstable mean flows and stratification profiles, relevant to a planned tracer release experiment, to generate an active mesoscale eddy field. The simulation also included a three-dimensional tracer forced by mean lateral gradients. The results indicate that mesoscale stirring can generate ample vertical as well as horizontal structure in the steady-state tracer. The structure is sufficient to explain observed T-S finescale measurements in some locations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 06, 2009
Accession Number
ADA504863

Entities

People

  • Scott Smith

Organizations

  • New York University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Availability
  • Classification
  • Data Sets
  • Department Of Defense
  • High Resolution
  • Information Operations
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Mixing
  • Monitoring
  • New York
  • Physical Oceanography
  • Salinity
  • Security
  • Simulations
  • Turbulence

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers