Vertical mixing and elements of mesoscale dynamics over North Carolina shelf and contiguous Gulf Stream waters

Results of microstructure measurements conducted in October–November of 2015 as a part of the Coupled Air Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research (CASPER) project are discussed. The measurements were taken on the North Carolina shelf and across the Gulf Stream front. On the shelf, the oceanic stratification was influenced by highly variable surface salinity and along-bottom advection. Vertical mixing was mostly governed by variable winds. The vertical eddy diffusivity was estimated using the VMP-based dissipation measurements, and the diffusivity values obtained during calm periods and stormy winds were compared. Parameterization of the diffusivity for various mesoscale dynamical conditions is discussed in terms of shear instabilities and internal wave-generated turbulence based on data obtained in deep waters of the Gulf Stream and on the continental slope.     

Turbulence decay in stratified and homogeneous marine layers

A spectral approach is applied to shear-induced turbulence in stratified layers. A system of spectral equations for stationary balance of turbulent energy and temperature variances was deduced in the vicinity of the local shear scale L_U = (ε/U_Z³)^1/2. At wavenumbers between the inertial-convective (k^−5/3) and wak turbulence (k⁻³) subranges, additional narrow spectral intervals—‘production’ subranges—may appear (E k⁻¹, E_T k⁻²). The upper boundary of these subranges is determined as L_U, and the lower boundaries as L_R (ε/U_ZN²)^1/2(χ/T_Z²). It is shown that the scale L_U is a unique spectral scale that is uniform up to a constant value for every hydrophysical field. It appears that the spectral scale L_U is equivalent to the Thorpe scale L_Th for the active turbulence model. Therefore, if turbulent patches are generated in a background of permanent mean shear, a linear relation between temperature and mass diffusivities exists. In spectral terms, the fossil turbulence model corresponds to the regime of the Boldgiano-Obukhov buoyancy subrange (E k^−11/5, E_T k^−7/5). During decay the buoyancy subrange is expanded to lower and higher wavenumbers. At lower wavenumbers the buoyancy subrange is bounded by L_** = 3(χ^1/2/N^1/2T_Z), which is equivalent to the Thorpe scale L_Th. In such a transition regime only, when the viscous dissipation rate is removed from the set of main turbulence parameters, the Thorpe scale does not correlate with the buoyancy scale L_N ε^1/2/N^3/2 and fossil turbulence is realized. Oceanic turbulence measurements in the equatorial Pacific near Baker Island confirm the main ideas of the active and fossil turbulence models.