Observation of Spatial Variability of Diurnal Thermocline and Rain-Formed Halocline in the Western Pacific Warm Pool

Authors

Alexander Soloviev, University of Hawaii - ManoaFollow
Roger Lukas, University of Hawaii - Manoa

ORCID

0000-0001-6519-1547

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Physical Oceanography

ISSN

0022-3670

Publication Date

11-1996

Abstract

High-resolution measurements of temperature and salinity were made in the near-surface layer of the ocean during the Tropical Oceans-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment, using probes mounted on the bow of the R/V Moana Wave. Because of surface waves and pitching of the vessel, the bow probes profiled the near-surface layer of the ocean within depths of 0–4.0 m. In the near-surface layer of the ocean in the western Pacific warm pool, strong variability of temperature and salinity produced by diurnal heating and/or rain was often observed. The contoured density field revealed cases of pronounced spatial variability. The shallow diurnal thermocline and rain-formed halocline are subject to perturbations that sometimes look like large amplitude internal waves. Possible sources of the internal waves in the near-surface layer of the ocean are discussed.

DOI

10.1175/1520-0485(1996)026<2529:OOSVOD>2.0.CO;2

Volume

26

Issue

11

First Page

2529

Last Page

2538

Comments

©1996 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyrights@ametsoc.org.

Additional Comments

NSF grant #s: OCE-9216891, OCE-9113948

NSUWorks Citation

Alexander Soloviev and Roger Lukas. 1996. Observation of Spatial Variability of Diurnal Thermocline and Rain-Formed Halocline in the Western Pacific Warm Pool .Journal of Physical Oceanography , (11) : 2529 -2538. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/629.