Simulation of the Atlantic Ocean seasonal variability, using a quasi-isopycnic model

The paper discusses the data derived from a numerical experiment on the ocean’s response (between the equator and 64°N) to the seasonal variability of the atmospheric forcing (wind and heat flux through the ocean surface). A multilayer (7 layers) non-linear model is used incorporating the upper mixed layer interacting with the internal layers in the regimes of entraining and subduction. The restructuring of the layer composition, the currents and temperature variability, as well as the alternation of the entrainment and subduction regimes are analysed. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Effects of benthic biology on bottom boundary layer processes, Dry Tortugas Bank, Florida Keys

 An instrumented tetrapod was deployed for three weeks on the Dry Tortugas Bank at a depth of 26 m in February 1995. Bottom roughness was dominated by shrimp burrows and worm mounds with rms roughness amplitudes ranging from 0.47 to 1.75 cm. Logarithmic velocity profiles show apparent total roughness heights ranging from 0.30 to 1.45 cm, values consistent with observed biological roughness. The bed sediments were weakly bound by an algal crust at the sediment–water interface. When this bound layer was scraped away by a mooring that was accidentally dragged, sharp-crested wave-induced ripples appeared within the resulting swath. We conclude that physically induced roughness is biologically suppressed, but if dominant, would be significantly higher than the prevailing biological roughness.     

Dynamics of the long-period tides

The long-period tides are a tool for understanding oceanic motions at low frequencies and large scales. Here we review observations and theory of the fortnightly, monthly and pole tide constitutents. Observations have been plagued by low signal-to-noise ratios and theory by the complex lateral geometry and great sensitivity to bottom slopes. A new spectral element model is used to compute the oceanic response to tidal forcing at 2-week and monthly periods. The general response is that of a heavily damped (Q ≈ 5) system with both the energy input from the moon and the dissipation strongly localized in space. The high dissipation result is probably generally applicable to all low frequency barotropic oceanic motions. Over much of the ocean, the response has both the character of a large-scale and a superposed Rossby wave-like character, thus vindicating two apparently conflicting earlier interpretations. To the extent that free waves are excited they are consistent with their being dominated by Rossby and topographic Rossby wave components, although gravity modes are also necessarily excited to some degree. In general, a modal representation is not very helpful. The most active regions are the Southern Ocean and the western and northern North Atlantic. These results are stable to changes in geometry, topography, and tide period. On a global average basis, the dynamical response of Mm is closer to equilibrium than is Mf.     

The microstructure of lime-stabilized marine clay

The treatment of fine-grained soils with lime makes the soil system less sensitive to the changes in stress and other environmental factors. In the present investigation an attempt has been made to examine the nature of reaction products formed in a marine clay due to lime treatment using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies. The lime-induced microstructural changes in a marine clay have been investigated using SEM. The test results indicate that there is an overall improvement in the structure of the soil system resulting in a porous system due to the formation of new reaction products.     

Some statistical methods of the objective classification of oceanographic data

Algorithms for the compression and objective classification of low-volume samplings according to the test of their belonging to different statistical populations are given. Samplings are discriminated by thex ² test. The distributions of the temperature patch horizontal scales in the upper ocean are analysed. It is shown that optimum empirical thresholds exist when the abstract classification mechanism goes over to the objective natural classification.Translated by Mikhail M. Trufanov.     

Wave climate in a groin field

Wave records at seven different locations within a groin field have been analysed by both statistical and spectral approaches to study the general wave climate. The wave heights and periods from the wave records were obtained by both upcross and downcross methods for the statistical approach. The variation of different wave height and wave period parameters with respect to the time of measurement at a particular location and its variation at different locations within the groin field at a particular instant of time are presented and discussed in detail in this paper. It is generally found that the wave heights follow the Weibull distribution.