Secretary of the Navy Professor of Oceanography

Abstract

The principal research effort has been towards an understanding the high-frequency tail of the surface gravity wave spectrum, lengths of 2 cm to 60 cm. These are principally responsible for wind drag on water. The analysis was based on a unique data set from geophones and hydrophones at 5 1/2 km depth midway between California and Hawaii. The measured spectral intensity around 10 Hz gives a more accurate measure of local winds than the standard satellite scatterometry. A spectral gap at the 30 Hz gravity to capillary transition offers new opportunities for spectral monitoring. We are making progress towards understanding the generation processes. A continuing effort towards the acoustic monitoring of ocean processes has been directed at the polar ocean cavities sandwiched between the floating ice sheet and the sea floor. We are exploring a possible tomography experiment in the Ross Sea with the goal of better predicting polar ice melting processes and the associated global rise in sea level.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 18, 2013
Accession Number
ADA594660

Entities

People

  • Walter Munk

Organizations

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustics
  • California
  • Data Sets
  • Frequency
  • Glaciers
  • Gravity
  • Gravity Waves
  • Ice
  • Microvessels
  • Monitoring
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Ross Sea
  • Sea Level
  • Seabed
  • Standards
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Polar and Arctic Studies

Technology Areas

  • Space