Evaluation of drift current parameters using an analytical model

The paper is concerned with the evaluation of the drift current parameters derived through the use of an analytical model. In this model, effective when stratification is stable and indifferent, the vertical turbulence coefficient profile is prescribed by the power function, and hydrodynamic quantities are prescribed using the external parameters of the problem (wind stress, the Coriolis parameter, and the dimensionless stratification parameter). Model data are compared with the observations of the upper mixed layer in the vicinity of the oceanic Station C, conducted during one year. It is shown that, under the spring-summer-time warming conditions, the model at issue is capable of adequately simulating the upper ocean layer dynamics. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Formation of pockmarks by pore-water escape

During the course of a North Sea rig site investigation, a number of seabed depressions were observed on side-scan sonar records, some of which may be identified as pockmarks. Others are described as pits. A pockmark evolutionary series is proposed on the basis of all these features with a suggested mechanism which would favor release of pore water, but does not exclude gas escape. Acoustic voids are considered to be a related phenomenon.     

Seasonal course of theT,S-characteristics in the north-eastern Tropical Atlantic

The problem of the seasonal variations of temperature and salinity in the intermediate zone located between the West African and the Gulf of Guinea upwellings is considered. The vertical distribution of the phase-amplitude characteristics of the annual and semi-annual variations is examined in good detail and their parameters are defined from the monthly means using the least-squares fit technique. The contribution of isopycnic advection to the formation of seasonal thermohaline variations is studied.Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Determination of characteristics of atmospheric motions from satellite multiwave remote sensing data

A method of determination of atmospheric dynamic characteristics from the data of remote sensing from a geostationary satellite is described. The method is based on the use of inhomogeneities in the concentration field of a conservative additive as tracers and on the application of correlation-extreme algorithms. Unlike the common methods used abroad, this method is able to determine not only the vector field of wind velocity but also the coefficient of turbulent diffusion and vorticity. Results of computations of the fields of the horizontal component of wind velocity and the effective coefficient of horizontal mesoscale turbulent diffusion from the Meteosat-8 SEVIRI water-vapor channel data are presented. It is shown that the average values of the effective coefficient of mesoscale horizontal turbulent diffusion in the areas with a predominantly turbulized air-mass motion are 1.5 times greater than in the areas where a laminar motion dominates. Specific features of the calculated values of the upper-troposphere dynamic characteristics in different stages of the North Atlantic TC Helene (September 2006) are analyzed.     

Characterization of interface roughness of rippled sand off Fort Walton Beach, Florida

As part of the environmental characterization to model acoustic bottom scattering during the high-frequency sediment acoustics experiment (SAX99), fine-scale sediment roughness of a medium sand was successfully measured within a 600 /spl times/ 600-m area by two methods: stereo photography and a technique using a conductivity system. Areal coverage of the two methods, representing approximately 0.16 m/sup 2/ of the sea floor, was comparable, resulting in the depiction and quantification of half-meter wavelength sand ripples. Photogrammetric results were restricted to profiles digitized at 1-mm intervals; sediment conductivity results generated gridded micro-bathymetric measurements with 1- to 2-cm node spacing. Roughness power spectra give similar results in the low-spatial-frequency domains where the spectra estimated from both approaches overlap. However, spectra derived from higher resolution photogrammetric results appear to exhibit a multiple-power-law fit. Roughness measurements also indicate that spectrum changes as a function of time. Application of statistical confidence bounds on the power spectra indicates that roughness measurements separated by only 1-2 m may be spatially nonstationary.     

Surface heat fluxes and subsurface heat content at a site over the southeastern Bering Sea shelf, May–July 1996

Observations from a surface mooring, in a weak-flow regime over the southeastern Bering Sea shelf, were used to derive surface heat fluxes for the period May–July 1996. Changes in heat content of the water column also were determined from subsurface temperature measurements. Agreement of net surface heat flux and change in heat content was within 2%. This result provides additional evidence that heat advection and diffusion are small in this region.