Turbulence and Internal Tides on the Continental Slope

Abstract

My interest is in oceanic processes that contribute to stirring and mixing in order to understand their impact on larger scales. This includes phenomena ranging from the meso- (10 km) to the microscale (1 cm), with an emphasis on their interactions, including internal waves, tides, potential-vorticity-carrying finestructure (vortical mode), turbulence and double diffusion. My recent focus has been on how meso- and finescale flow fields interact with complex topography such as seamounts, canyons, ridges and the continental slope. Mixing in the stratified ocean interior is too weak to close the meridional thermohaline circulation (Ledwell et al. 1998). I am exploring whether topographically-enhanced turbulent mixing might be sufficient to do so, and determining what mechanisms are responsible for its generation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2003
Accession Number
ADA618363

Entities

People

  • Eric Kunze

Organizations

  • University of Washington

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Continental Slopes
  • Diffusion
  • Flow Fields
  • Internal Waves
  • Layers
  • Mixing
  • Physics
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Ray Tracing
  • Ridges
  • Topography
  • Turbulence
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

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