Lateral Coherence and Mixing in the Coastal Ocean: Adaptive Sampling using Gliders

Abstract

Lateral mixing is driven through the interplay between finescale isopycnal stirring (shear + strain) and small-scale diapycnal turbulence. We seek to understand this interplay within highly anisotropic coherent structures, such as fronts, jets, eddies and filaments, which likely control lateral dispersion in both coastal and open ocean. These structures evolve yet are often persistent on O (3 day) timescales, so are ideally suited to be adaptively sampled by autonomous gliders that actively report both turbulent and finescale statistics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2010
Accession Number
ADA542832

Entities

People

  • James N. Moum
  • John A. Barth
  • Jonathan D. Nash
  • R. K. Shearman

Organizations

  • Oregon State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Continental Shelves
  • Deployment
  • Dispersions
  • Measurement
  • Microstructure
  • Mixing
  • Observation
  • Salinity
  • Sampling
  • Surveys
  • Temperature Gradients
  • Trajectories
  • Turbulence
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Underwater Acoustics
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

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

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control