Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Small-Scale Turbulence in the Wind-Wave Layer of the Ocean

ORCID

0000-0001-6519-1547

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics

ISSN

0001-4338

Publication Date

1988

Abstract

Vertical profiles of electrical conductivity and turbulent velocity fluctuations in the 10-m surface layer of the open ocean were made with a free-rising turbulimeter probe during the 35th cruise of the R/V Akademik Kurchatov. The estimates of the rate of dissipation of turbulent energy ε were analyzed in universal coordinates εxz/u*3 and gz/u*2. In the depth range 3.8*104 ≲ gz/u*2 ≲ 2.0*106, the rates of dissipation of turbulent energy were generally close to or somewhat greater than (by no more than a factor of 3) the figures representing a shear model of the generation of turbulence. The results agree with the data of most other investigators in terms of both the rate of dissipation of turbulent energy and the spectral characteristics. There is also agreement with the theory of Csanady based on measurements of velocity profiles with drifters in the wind-wave layer of the ocean. Various methods of filtering the small-scale turbulence in the wind-wave layer are compared.

Volume

24

Issue

12

First Page

962

Last Page

967

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