Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

ORCID

0000-0001-6519-1547

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

ISSN

0967-0637

Publication Date

6-1997

Abstract

Because of the relatively calm winds which prevail over the western Pacific warm pool, the diurnal cycle of temperature in the near-surface layer of the ocean is often quite pronounced. During the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE), very high resolution measurements of near-surface thermohaline and turbulence structures were made using bowmounted probes and a free-rising profiler. Experimental data demonstrate a strong dependence of near-surface thermal structure on weather conditions, In calm weather, SST was observed to exceed 33.25°C; this was associated with a diurnal warming of more than 3°C in the top I m of the ocean. A 1-D model of transilient type reproduces the diurnal cycle at low wind speeds and the evening deepening of the diurnal thermocline. Precipitation influenced the diurnal cycle by trapping heat in the near-surface region. During daytime evaporation, surface salinity increased slightly, but deep convection was inhibited by the strong vertical temperature gradient. Contour plots calculated using observations from bow sensors “scanning” the upper meters of the ocean due to ship's pitching in some cases revealed strong horizontal variability of the shallow diurnal thermocline with amplitude ∼ 2°C on scales of 0.2–6 km.

DOI

10.1016/S0967-0637(96)00124-0

Volume

44

Issue

6

First Page

1055

Last Page

1076

Comments

©1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

Additional Comments

NSF grant #: OCE-9216891; ONR grant #: N0014-961-0832

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