Insights from a 3-D temperature sensors mooring on stratified ocean turbulence
van Haren, H.; Cimatoribus, A.; Cyr, F.; Gostiaux, L. (2016). Insights from a 3-D temperature sensors mooring on stratified ocean turbulence. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43: 4483-4489. dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068032 In: Geophysical Research Letters. American Geophysical Union: Washington. ISSN 0094-8276; e-ISSN 1944-8007, more |   |
| Authors | | Top | - van Haren, H., more
- Cimatoribus, A., more
- Cyr, F., more
- Gostiaux, L.
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| Abstract | A unique small-scale 3-D mooring array has been designed consisting of ?ve parallel lines, 100 mlong and 4 m apart, and holding up to 550 high-resolution temperature sensors. It is built for quantitativestudies on the evolution of strati ?ed turbulence by internal wave breaking in geophysical ?ows at scaleswhich go beyond that of a laboratory. Here we present measurements from above a steep slope of MountJosephine, NE Atlantic where internal wave breaking occurs regularly. Vertical and horizontal coherence spectrashow an aspect ratio of 0.25–0.5 near the buoyancy frequency, evidencing anisotropy. At higher frequencies,the transition to isotropy (aspect ratio of 1) is found within the inertial subrange. Above the continuousturbulence spectrum in this subrange, isolated peaks are visible that locally increase the spectral width, incontrast with open ocean spectra. Their energy levels are found to be proportional to the tidal energy level. |
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