Coastal and Near Surface Mixing
Abstract
My long-term goal is to contribute to our understanding of turbulence and mixing processes in the ocean, and to establish how mixing affects the distribution and transport of heat, salt, and other important physical processes. I wish to establish how the efficiency and the rate of mixing depend upon the shear in currents, the stratification of the density, and the intensity of turbulence. Mixing increases the potential energy of the ocean by raising denser water towards the surface. The efficiency of mixing is the fraction of kinetic energy that is converted to potential energy. The challenge is to measure the mixing directly without relying on models and assumptions about the nature of turbulence. Sound is backscattered from turbulence and plankton. I want to relate the intensity of turbulence to the backscattering cross-section through the simultaneous measurement of both in the ocean, and to determine the features of the back-scatter that distinguish turbulence from plankton. In addition I would like to use the backscatter to determine the spatial distribution of plankton on scales of 0.1 10 m with particular interest in clustering.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA618361
Entities
People
- Rolf Lueck
Organizations
- University of Victoria