Velcro Measurements of Turbulence in Coastal Oceans
Abstract
Significant turbulent transports within coastal oceans have been shown to be highly sporadic in both time and space, challenging present ship-based, labour-intensive turbulence measurement techniques. My long-term goal is to lower the cost and effort required to find those locations which dominate coastal mixing, to describe their time evolution, and to quantify their effects. The ultimate objective is an automated system, operating without ship support and returning data via local radio (cell-phone) networks or by underwater telemetry. The goal of this project is to develop survey tools - instrumentation and analysis techniques - which will produce 2-dimensional fields of important turbulent quantities simultaneously with the mean shear fields which generate them. Such survey tools are essential to locate the "hot spots" of coastal ocean turbulence, allowing more expensive techniques to be concentrated in these areas. Survey instruments are also necessary for adequate description of turbulent flow evolution over the enormous range of temporal scales which are relevant to coastal oceans, from the semi-diurnal tidal period through annual and interannual variations in buoyancy forcing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA569991
Entities
People
- Ann Gargett
Organizations
- Institute of Ocean Sciences