Horizontal Structure of the Upper Ocean Velocity and Density Fields in the Western Equatorial Pacific Warm Pool: Depth Range from 20 to 250 m

Authors

Alexander Soloviev, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Roger Lukas, University of Hawaii - Manoa
Peter Hacker, University of Hawaii - Manoa

ORCID

0000-0001-6519-1547

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Physical Oceanography

ISSN

0022-3670

Publication Date

2-2000

Abstract

Wavenumber spectra of velocity and density fields in the western equatorial Pacific warm pool on scales 6–120 km are estimated using the shipboard survey data collected during the TOGA Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE). The spectra are averaged over three depth intervals: 20–60, 60–110, and 110–250 m (corresponding to the Yoshida jet, the South Equatorial Current, and the southern edge of Equatorial Undercurrent). The velocity spectra are corrected for the mean flow shear advection, which is important under conditions of low gradient Richardson number (Ri). After that, both velocity and density spectra are consistent with an internal wave spectral model including a random component (equatorial version of the Garrett and Munk spectrum) and a tidal component (the Feng et al. tidal model). Tidal peaks, previously found by other COARE investigators as being prominent on the ‘‘moored’’ spectra (i.e., on the spectra derived from mooring data), appear to be much less significant on the ‘‘towed’’ spectra (i.e., on the spectra derived from shipboard surveys). The model and observations reveal some directional anisotropy of the towed velocity spectra depending on Ri.

DOI

10.1175/1520-0485(2000)030<0416:HSOTUO>2.0.CO;2

Volume

30

Issue

2

First Page

416

Last Page

432

Comments

©2000 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-911349, OCE-9113948

NSUWorks Citation

Alexander Soloviev, Roger Lukas, and Peter Hacker. 2000. Horizontal Structure of the Upper Ocean Velocity and Density Fields in the Western Equatorial Pacific Warm Pool: Depth Range from 20 to 250 m .Journal of Physical Oceanography , (2) : 416 -432. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/634.