Abstract
MECHANISMS OF MIXING IN THE AGULHAS RETURN CURRENT FROM MICROSTRUCTURE AND FINESTRUCTURE MEASUREMENTS

In Jan/Feb 2012 the Naval Research Laboratory and collaborators collected the first microstructure measurements in the Agulhas Return Current (ARC) as part of an experiment to examine frontal zone mixing processes. Within the ARC the interaction of sub-tropical and sub-polar water masses is manifested as interleaving thermohaline intrusions. Preliminary microstructure results show that these fine-scale structures are often associated with elevated turbulent dissipation rates of order 10-8 W kg-1 or larger. The focus of this work is to further elucidate mixing processes by examining how thermohaline microstructure controls the observed interleaving, and by assessing how mesoscale and fine-scale features influence overall mixing processes of the ARC. The extensive available dataset of temperature and salinity measurements from microstructure profiles, XBTs and CTDs, and velocity observations from shipboard ADCP will enable the computation of gradient balances at different scales and facilitate analysis of contributing processes ranging from the microscales to the mesoscales. A unique feature of the experiment was the collection of seismic oceanography data, which provided additional information about the submesoscales and finestructure.

ePoster:
Authors

Rice, A. E., Naval Research Laboratory, USA, Ana.Rice.ctr@nrlssc.navy.mil

Book, J. W., Naval Research Laboratory, USA, Jeff.Book@nrlssc.navy.mil

Fischer, T., Geomar, Germany, tfischer@geomar.de

Thomsen, S., Geomar, Germany, sthomsen@geomar.de

Wood, W. T., Naval Research Laboratory, USA, Warren.Wood@nrlssc.navy.mil
Details

Poster presentation

Session #:036
Date: 2/27/2014
Time: 16:00 - 18:00
Location: Poster/Exhibit Hall

Presentation is given by student: No

PosterID: 1794