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Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST) provides important scaling laws for flow properties in the surface layer of the atmosphere and has contributed to most of our understanding of the near-surface turbulence. The prediction of near-surface vertical mixing in most operational ocean models is largely built upon this theory. However, the validity of MOST in the upper ocean is questionable due to the demonstrated importance of surface waves in the region. Here we examine the validity of MOST in the statically unstable oceanic surface layer, using data collected from two open ocean sites with different wave conditions. The observed vertical temperature gradients are found to be about half of those predicted by MOST. We hypothesize this is attributable to either the breaking of surface waves, or Langmuir turbulence generated by the wave–current interaction. Existing turbulence closure models for surface wave breaking and for Langmuir turbulence are simplified to test these two hypotheses. Although both models predict reduced temperature gradients, the simplified Langmuir turbulence model matches observations more closely, when appropriately tuned.

An autonomous Lagrangian float equipped with a high-resolution acoustic Doppler current profiler observed the evolution of upper-ocean stratification and velocity in the Eastern Pacific Fresh Pool for over 100 days in August-November 2016. Although convective mixing homogenized the water column to 40 m depth almost every night, the combination of diurnal warming on clear days and rainfall on cloudy days routinely produced strong stratification in the upper 10 m. Whether due to thermal or freshwater effects, the initial strong stratification was mixed downward and incorporated in the bulk of the mixed layer within a few hours. Stratification cycling was associated with pronounced variability of ocean surface boundary layer turbulence and vertical shear of wind-driven (Ekman) currents. Decoupled from the bulk of the mixed layer by strong stratification, warm and fresh near-surface waters were rapidly accelerated by wind, producing the well-known "slippery layer" effect, and leading to a strong downwind near-surface distortion of the Ekman profile. A case study illustrates the ability of the new generation of Lagrangian floats to measure rapidly evolving temperature, salinity, and velocity, including turbulent and internal wave components. Quantitative interpretation of the results remains a challenge, which can be addressed with high-resolution numerical modeling, given sufficiently accurate air-sea fluxes.

Acrucial region of the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) is the strongly-sheared and -stratified transition layer (TL) separating the mixed layer from the upper pycnocline, where a diverse range of waves and instabilities are possible. Previous work suggests that these different waves and instabilities will lead to different OSBL behaviours. Therefore, understanding which physical processes occur is key for modelling the TL. Here we present observations of the TL from a Lagrangian float deployed for 73 days near Ocean Weather Station Papa (50°N, 145°W) during Fall 2018. The float followed the vertical motion of the TL, continuously measuring profiles across it using an ADCP, temperature chain and salinity sensors. The temperature chain made depth/time images of TL structures with a resolution of 6cm and 3 seconds. These showed the frequent occurrence of very sharp interfaces, dominated by temperature jumps of O(1)°C over 6cm or less. Temperature inversions were typically small (≲ 10cm), frequent, and strongly-stratified; very few large overturns were observed. The corresponding velocity profiles varied over larger length scales than the temperature profiles. These structures are consistent with scouring behaviour rather than Kelvin-Helmholtz-type overturning. Their net effect, estimated via a Thorpe-scale analysis, suggests that these frequent small temperature inversions can account for the observed mixed layer deepening and entrainment flux. Corresponding estimates of dissipation, diffusivity, and heat fluxes also agree with previous TL studies, suggesting that the TL dynamics is dominated by these nearly continuous 10cm-scale mixing structures, rather than by less frequent larger overturns.

Surface waves modify upper ocean dynamics through Stokes drift related processes. Stokes drift estimated from a discrete wave spectrum is compared to Stokes drift approximations as a monochromatic profile based on bulk surface wave parameters, and to two additional superexponential functional forms. The impact of these different methods on ocean processes is examined in two test‐bed cases of a wave‐current coupled system: (1) a wind‐free shallow water inlet test case and (2) an idealized deep water hurricane case with high varying winds. In case (1), tidal currents and bathymetry can modify the waves and significantly affect Stokes drift computed from the wave spectrum. In case (2), rapid variation in atmospheric stress at high wind speed generates large departures from fully developed equilibrium seas. In both cases, large deviations in ocean current response are produced when the Stokes drift is approximated monochromatically from bulk wave parameters, rather than from integration over the wave spectra. Deep water simulations using the two superexponential approximations are in better agreement with those estimated from wave spectra than are those using the monochromatic, exponential profile based on bulk wave parameters. In order to represent the impact of Stokes drift at resolved scales, we recommend that for studies of nearshore processes and deep water events, like wave‐current interactions under storms, the Stokes drift should be calculated from full wave spectra. For long simulations of open ocean dynamics, methods using superexponential profiles to represent equilibrium wind seas might be sufficient, but appear to be marginally more computationally efficient.

Turbulent flow in surface layer, the top few meters in the ocean, tends to exhibit consistent and repeatable characteristics, and useful empirical laws can be formed to shed light on turbulence par...

The Arabian Sea circulation is forced by strong monsoonal winds and is characterized by vigorous seasonally reversing currents, extreme differences in sea surface salinity, localized substantial upwelling, and widespread submesoscale thermohaline structures. Its complicated sea surface temperature patterns are important for the onset and evolution of the Asian monsoon. This article describes a program that aims to elucidate the role of upper-ocean processes and atmospheric feedbacks in setting the sea surface temperature properties of the region. The wide range of spatial and temporal scales and the difficulty of accessing much of the region with ships due to piracy motivated a novel approach based on state-of-the-art autonomous ocean sensors and platforms. The extensive data set that is being collected, combined with numerical models and remote sensing data, confirms the role of planetary waves in the reversal of the Somali Current system. These data also document the fast response of the upper equatorial ocean to monsoon winds through changes in temperature and salinity and the connectivity of the surface currents across the northern Indian Ocean. New observations of thermohaline interleaving structures and mixing in setting the surface temperature properties of the northern Arabian Sea are also discussed.

[1] Nearly all operational ocean models use air-sea fluxes and the ocean shear and stratification to estimate upper ocean boundary layer mixing rates. This approach implicitly parameterizes surface wave effects in terms of these inputs. Here we test this assumption using parallel experiments in a lake with small waves and in the open ocean with much bigger waves. Under the same wind stress and adjusting for buoyancy flux, we find the mixed layer average turbulent vertical kinetic energy in the open ocean typically twice that in the lake. The increase is consistent with models of Langmuir turbulence, in which the wave Stokes drift, and not wave breaking, is the dominant mechanism by which waves energize turbulence in the mixed layer. Applying these same theories globally, we find enhanced mixing and deeper mixed layers resulting from the inclusion of Langmuir turbulence in the boundary layer parameterization, especially in the Southern Ocean.

The ocean surface boundary layer mediates air-sea exchange. In the classical paradigm and in current climate models, its turbulence is driven by atmospheric forcing. Observations at a 1-kilometer-wide front within the Kuroshio Current indicate that the rate of energy dissipation within the boundary layer is enhanced by one to two orders of magnitude, suggesting that the front, rather than the atmospheric forcing, supplied the energy for the turbulence. The data quantitatively support the hypothesis that winds aligned with the frontal velocity catalyzed a release of energy from the front to the turbulence. The resulting boundary layer is stratified in contrast to the classically well-mixed layer. These effects will be strongest at the intense fronts found in the Kuroshio Current, the Gulf Stream, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, all of which are key players in the climate system.

Four instances of persistent intrusive deformation of the North Pacific Subtropical Front were tagged individually by a Lagrangian float and tracked for several days. Each feature was mapped in three dimensions using repeat towed observations referenced to the float. Isohaline surface deformations in the frontal zone included sheetlike folds elongated in the alongfront direction and narrow tongues extending across the front. All deformations appeared as protrusions of relatively cold, and fresh, water across the front. No corresponding features of the opposite sign or isolated lenslike structures were observed. The sheets were O(10 m) thick, protruded about 10 km into the warm saline side of the front, and were coherent for 10–30 km along the front. Having about the same thickness and cross-frontal extent as the sheets, tongues extended less than 5 km along the front. All of the intrusions persisted as long as they were followed, several days to one week. Their structures evolved on both inertial (23 h) and subinertial (∼10 days) time scales in response to differential lateral advection. The water mass surrounding the intrusions participated in gradual anticyclonic rotation as a part of a mesoscale meander of the subtropical front. The intrusions may be interpreted as a manifestation of three-dimensional submesoscale turbulence of the frontal zone, driven by the mesoscale. Absence of large features of the opposite sign may be indicative of the asymmetry of the underlying dynamics.

A monthlong field survey in July 2007, focused on the North Pacific subtropical frontal zone (STFZ) near 30°N, 158°W, combined towed depth-cycling conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) profiling with shipboard current observations. Measurements were used to investigate the distribution and structure of thermohaline intrusions. The study revealed that local extrema of vertical salinity profiles, often used as intrusion indicators, were only a subset of a wider class of distortions in thermohaline fields due to interleaving processes. A new method to investigate interleaving based on diapycnal spiciness curvature was used to describe an expanded class of laterally coherent intrusions. STFZ intrusions were characterized by their overall statistics and by a number of case studies. Thermohaline interleaving was particularly intense within 5 km of two partially compensated fronts, where intrusions with both positive and negative salinity anomalies were widespread. The vertical and cross-frontal scales of the intrusions were on the order of 10 m and 5 km, respectively. Though highly variable, the slopes of these features were typically intermediate between those of isopycnals and isohalines. Although the influence of double-diffusive processes sometime during the evolution of intrusions could not be excluded, the broad spectrum of the observed features suggests that any role of double diffusion was secondary.

The Gulf Stream is a major conduit of warm surface water from the tropics to the subpolar North Atlantic. Here we observe and simulate a submesoscale (

A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the wintertime upper ocean below seasonal Antarctic ice cover over Maud Rise was carried out using observed time-dependent surface forcing from 1994 Antarctic Zone Flux Experiment (ANZFLUX) observations. Surface ice formation increases the density of the cold, fresher Surface Mixed Layer (SML), that overlies warmer, saltier Weddell Deep Water (WDW). This reduces the stability of the thermocline until it reaches a critical point for instabilities arising from the nonlinear equation of state (NES) for seawater density ρ. This simulation was intended to model the thermobaric detrainment of SML fluid, a NES instability predicted to result from the dependence of seawater density on the product θP of temperature and pressure. Instead, model results demonstrate a different instability arising from the combination of thermobaricity with cabbeling, the NES effect due primarily to the dependence of ρ on θ2. This combined thermobaric cabbeling instability drives turbulent convection in a deep interior mixed layer (IML) that may grow hundreds of meters thick below the thermocline, largely decoupled from SML dynamics. In the LES, thermobaric cabbeling and IML convection shoals the SML through entrainment from below until ice motion increases in the observationally-based model forcing. Increased upper ocean model heat flux due to higher ice speed melts surface ice, increasing thermocline stratification and eventually bringing the simulated instability to a halt. In an auxiliary simulation the lull preceding strong ice motion in field observations is artificially extended by temporarily holding model surface forcing constant until the SML shoals entirely, bringing the modified WDW of the IML, 2 °C above freezing, directly to the surface. Subsequently, reverting to the observed surface forcing and its attendant strong ice motion melts the ice cover entirely, demonstrating a possible mechanism for open ocean Antarctic polynya formation. The same process, as halted prematurely in the LES using the forcing observed, may also be responsible for thick, deep internal layers and localized ‘chimney’ structures observed in the Weddell Sea.

Measurements of deep convection from fully Lagrangian floats deployed in the Labrador Sea during February and March 1997 are compared with results from model drifters embedded in a large eddy simulation (LES) of the rapidly deepening mixed layer. The deep Lagrangian floats (DLFs) have a large vertical drag, and are designed to nearly match the density and compressibility of seawater. The high-resolution numerical simulation of deep convective turbulence uses initial conditions and surface forcing obtained from in situ oceanic and atmospheric observations made by the R/V Knorr. The response of model floats to the resolved large eddy fields of buoyancy and velocity is simulated for floats that are 5 g too buoyant, as well as for floats that are correctly ballasted. Mean profiles of potential temperature, Lagrangian rates of heating and acceleration, vertical turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), vertical heat flux, potential temperature variance, and float probability distribution functions (PDFs) are compared for actual and model floats. Horizontally homogeneous convection, as represented by the LES model, accounts for most of the first and second order statistics from float observations, except that observed temperature variance is several times larger than model variance. There are no correspondingly large differences in vertical TKE, heat flux, or mixed layer depth. The augmented temperature variance may be due to mixing across large-scale temperature and salinity gradients that are largely compensated in buoyancy. The rest of the DLF statistics agree well with the response of correctly ballasted model floats in the lowest 75% of the mixed layer, and are less consistent with results from buoyantly ballasted model floats. Other differences between observation and simulation in the mean profiles of heat flux, vertical TKE, and Lagrangian heating and vertical acceleration rates are confined to the upper quarter of the mixed layer. These differences are small contributions to layer-averaged quantities, but represent statistically significant profile features. Larger observed values of heat flux and vertical TKE in the upper quarter of the mixed layer are more consistent with model floats ballasted light. Float buoyancy, however, cannot fully account for the observed PDFs, temperature profiles, and Lagrangian rates of heating and acceleration. A test of Lagrangian self-consistency comparing vertical TKE and Lagrangian acceleration also shows that DLF measurements are not significantly affected by excess float buoyancy. These upper mixed layer features may instead be due to the interaction of wind-driven currents and baroclinicity.

To understand isobaric float measurements of vertical velocity during oceanic deep convective events, we compare experimental results obtained in the Greenland Sea with time series from an ensemble of modeled isobaric drifters embedded in a Large Eddy Simulation (LES), carried out with realistic initial conditions and time-dependent surface forcing. Both real and simulated drifter time series show that in general the drifters observe a mean vertical velocity that may be upwards or downwards, depending on the vertical position of the float within the mixed layer. Over the course of the mixing phase, the net apparent vertical displacement of water may be on the order of several kilometers. The significant mean vertical velocity measured with these drifters is due to their tendency to preferentially sample zones of horizontal convergence. In the model, these zones are found to be associated with sinking plumes in the upper region of the mixed layer, or with rising warm return flow in the lower region.

This collaborative DRI is focused on measuring and modeling the response of the upper ocean to strong typhoons both in simple, open ocean conditions and in the more complex conditions caused by ocean eddies and preconditioning by prior storms.

Vertical velocities in the world’s oceans are typically small, less than 1 cm s−1, posing a significant challenge for observational techniques. Seaglider, an autonomous profiling instrument, can be used to estimate vertical water velocity in the ocean. Using a Seaglider’s flight model and pressure observations, vertical water velocities are estimated along glider trajectories in the Labrador Sea before, during, and after deep convection. Results indicate that vertical velocities in the stratified ocean agree with the theoretical Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) scaling of w; and in the turbulent mixed layer, scale with buoyancy, and wind forcing. It is estimated that accuracy is to within 0.5 cm s−1. Because of uncertainties in the flight model, velocities are poor near the surface and deep apogees, and during extended roll maneuvers. Some of this may be improved by using a dynamic flight model permitting acceleration and by better constraining flight parameters through pilot choices during the mission.

Physically-based parameterizations of vertical mixed layer fluxes in ocean models characterize turbulent mixing at length scales smaller than the layer depth, but do not address the dynamics of unresolved submesoscale horizontal mixing processes below their O(0.1)-O(10) km horizontal resolution scale. Modeling work carried out as part of this AESOP DRI has focused on surface boundary layer horizontal mixing processes in regions of significant horizontal variability, as commonly found in frontal regions. This study seeks to quantify the coupling between mixed layer vertical fluxes and the dynamics of lateral mixing by submesoscale coherent structures.

This report describes numerical simulation of two types of idealized drifters: pure Lagrangian drifters and the isobaric drifters. A large eddy (LES) model was used to predict the fully turbulent non-hydrostatic evolution of the oceanic flow fields that are typical of the Labrador Sea. The LES simulation indicates that either free or forced convection may dominate, depending upon the magnitudes of the wind stress and the net surface heat fluxed out of the ocean surface. Free convection predominates in the winter regimes of the periphery of the polar seas, especially in the very deeply convecting regions of open water adjacent to marginal ice zones. Forced convection is more dominant in the stable ice covered regions of the polar seas experiencing strong wind stirring and kinetic energy exchange with the ice. Forced convection may be an important precursor to free convection, and the organized cells of forced convection may help dilate the ice field to enhance heat and buoyancy exchange between the OPBL and the atmosphere.

Thermohaline intrusions have intrigued physical oceanographers since the first XBT section was published by Spilhaus in 1939. Characterized by vertical gradients of temperature and salinity having compensating density effects, intrusions are meters to tens of meters thick and extend laterally for hundreds of meters to many kilometers. Boundaries often have TS staircases produced by salt fingering or diffusive layering. Large diapycnal fluxes have been inferred from sections showing intrusions sloping across isopycnals, but these inferences are questionable, as isopycnal movements can give the illusion of diapycnal motion. To address these issues, in 2007 we used a depth‐cycling towed body, a neutrally buoyant Lagrangian float, and microstructure profilers to map and follow intrusions in the subtropical front north of Hawaii. All intrusions were connected to the front, i.e., none was isolated lenses, some as long, thin folds, and others resembled tongues. About 10 m thick, the sheets protruded 10 km into the warm, saline side of the front, were coherent laterally for 10–30 km, and lasted at least 1 week, evolving at both inertial (23 h) and sub‐inertial (∼10 day) time scales. They appeared to be formed by advective deformation of the front driven by sub‐mesoscale two‐dimensional motions.

EXAMINATION of the structure of the stone tower and excavation of it and of the associated earthworks at Lydford, Devon, revealed that the earliest structure, presumed to be the firme domus referred to in the Pipe Rolls for 1195, had been a free-standing, purpose-built gaol. It was partly demolished, and the upper part entirely rebuilt towards the middle of the 13th century. The original ground floor was filled up and the tower enclosed by a ditch with a mound piled against it. A small bailey was also added. The ‘castle’ continued to be used as a prison for the Devon Stannaries until the 18th century.