Ocean Battlespace Sensing (OBS) S&T Department Annual Report
Abstract
The long-term goal is to understand and quantify processes mixing the ocean. In November 2011 we participated in NRL's Mixing Over Rough Topography (MORT) program focused on East Flower Garden Bank, on the outer continental shelf southeast of Galveston, Texas (Fig. 1). Our objectives are to: 1) understand the three-dimensional velocity and scalar fields around the bank and how they respond to wind forcing over the bank and to low-frequency flows impinging on the bank, and 2) identify hydraulic controls, and 3) quantify mixing rates and relate them to the processes generating them. Most measurements were made with SWIMS3, a depth-cycling towed body carrying up and down 300 kHz acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs). When weather permitted, SWIMS3 was run along a grid pattern centered on the bank, rerunning the same pattern multiple times to observe changes during a tidal cycle. Figure 2 shows one pattern, grid1, which executed four times in succession early in the cruise and again several days later. Some later patterns used individual legs from this grid to concentrate on specific features in the water tied to the bathymetry. In addition, several lines were run using Modular Microstructure Profilers (MMPs) to measure mixing more directly.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA590607
Entities
People
- Michael C. Gregg
Organizations
- University of Washington