Sharp Frontal Interfaces in the Near-Surface Layer of the Ocean in the Western Equatorial 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

6-1997

Abstract

During the TOGA COARE rich horizontal temperature and salinity variability of the near-surface layer of the ocean in the western Pacific warm pool was observed. High-resolution measurements were made by probes mounted on the bow of the vessel in an undisturbed region at ~1.7-m depth during four COARE cruises of the R/V Moana Wave. The authors observed several tens of cases of periodic sharp frontal interfaces of width 1– 100 m and separation 0.2–60 km. The sharp frontal interfaces were often found in frontal regions and on the periphery of freshwater puddles. Maneuvers of the ship were conducted to determine the spatial orientation of a sharp frontal interface. The interfaces revealed anisotropy with respect to the wind direction. They were most sharp when the wind stress had a component along the buoyant spreading of the front. A possible origin of the sharp frontal interfaces is discussed. These interfaces may develop by nonlinear evolution of long-wave disturbances on the near-surface pycnocline that is often observed in the warm pool area. A shallow-water model may describe some features of the observations. A dimensionless number of the Reynolds type is a criterion of transition from wave train solution to dissipative shock-wave structure. The model predicts spatial anisotropy depending on the relative angle between the wind stress and horizontal density gradient.

DOI

10.1175/1520-0485(1997)027<0999:SFIITN>2.0.CO;2

Volume

27

Issue

6

First Page

999

Last Page

1017

Comments

©1997 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; ONR grant #: N00014-961-0832

NSUWorks Citation

Alexander Soloviev and Roger Lukas. 1997. Sharp Frontal Interfaces in the Near-Surface Layer of the Ocean in the Western Equatorial Pacific Warm Pool .Journal of Physical Oceanography , (6) : 999 -1017. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/630.