Local Response to Flow Encountering Abrupt Topography
Abstract
An observational program applying a suite of in-situ and remote sensing tools to study Western Pacific wind, wave, tidal, and geostrophic circulation response to abrupt topography; including boundary and island interactions is proposed. A cascade of scales will be addressed from O(10)m to O(100’s) km using fixed and mobile assets. Our proposed efforts will be integrated with other DRI team members. Topics to be addressed include: • Basin-scale wind and/or wind stress curl drives the north equatorial currents and western boundary currents at larger islands; • Fate of westward propagating eddies and/or Rossby waves as they encounter islands and topography (ridges) and generate responses including western boundary currents; • Local wind forcing can produce island trapped waves and may resonate at the local inertial period; • Steady, strong flow (e.g., North Equatorial Current or North Equatorial Counter Current [NEC and NECC]) over submarine ridges that can produce lee waves which can influence the current and generate turbulence (including sub-mesoscale features); • Strong flow at small islands leads to persistent submesoscale features: e.g., upwelling on the upstream side, flow constriction over the flanks, downwelling on the downstream side, flow separations that can introduce downstream eddies, and a turbulent island wake; • Remotely generated internal waves and internal tides will interact with steep ridges and islands in unpredictable manner, introducing tidal band current variance at the boundaries that are difficult to predict; • Wind and wave forced surface currents encountering island boundaries; • The role varying scales of observed physical processes have on influencing the local biology including fish aggregations, retention zones, and variability in oceanic plankton adjacent to the coast.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512304
Entities
People
- Eric Terrill
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego