Turbo-ROSS: quantifying spatial patterns of turbulent fluxes in the atmosphere and upper ocean during MISOs
Abstract
Better understanding of monsoon intra-seasonal oscillatios require improved understanding of the small-scale turbulent upper ocean processes that control the rate at which heat is sequestered in the ocean and re-released to the atmosphere during a propagating MISO" event. A significiant percentage of this heat exchange happens in the shallowest part of the ocean, the top 10 meters. In this dept""h range, turbulent heat exchange is governed by a range of complex processes including i] convection, ii]frontal instabilities, iii]"" Langmuir cells and associated turbulence,iii] nonlinear turbulent bores,iv] sub-mesoscale instabilities , and v] other wind-driven"" mixing, to name only a few. Here we propose to use two Remotely Operated Surface Samplers (ROSSs) to complement measurements from a" traditional reserach vessel during MISO-BOB. Turbo-ROSS will carry out precision-navigated missions to gather transects of velocity",denisty and turbulence, with an emphasis on the upper 0-20 meters of the water column. For MISO_BOB, Turbo-ROSS will carry an atmos"pheric flux package and additional turbulence sensors to measure heat fluxes across both sides of the air-sea interface at locations remote from the mother ship. The combination of such small-scale synoptic measurements will uniquely allow us to 1) map out heat and fresh-water patterns near the small-scale fronts where diapycnal fluxes are intensified; 2) identify smoking gun signatures of p"articular dynamical instabilities [in vorticity, for example] that are impossible without multiple sunchronized platforms, and 3) qu"antify the resultant heat/mass/momentum transports near the ocean s upper boundary.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712864
Entities
People
- Jonathan D. Nash
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Oregon State University
- United States Navy