Deep mixed layer entrainment
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 67
Subjects: OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA; OCEAN SURFACE; ENTRAINMENT
Description: A bulk turbulence-closure mixed layer model is generalized to allow prediction of very deep polar sea mixing. The model includes unsteady three- component turbulent kinetic energy budgets. In addition to terms for shear production, pressure redistribution, and dissipation, special attention is devoted to realistic treatment of thermobaric enhancement of buoyancy flux and to Coriolis effect on turbulence. The model is initialized and verified with CTD data taken by R/V Valdivia in the Greenland Sea during winter 1993-1994. Model simulations show (1) mixed layer deepening is significantly enhanced when the thermal expansion coefficient's increase with pressure is included; (2) entrainment rate is sensitive to the direction of wind stress because of Coriolis; and (3) the predicted mixed layer depth evolution agrees qualitatively with the observations. Results demonstrate the importance of water column initial conditions, accurate representation of strong surface cooling events, and inclusion of the thermobaric effect on buoyancy, to determine the depth of mixing and ultimately the heat and salt flux into the deep ocean. Since coupling of the ocean to the atmosphere through deep mixed layers in polar regions is fundamental to our climate system, it is important that regional and global models be developed that incorporate realistic representation of this coupling.
Notes: Thesis advisors, Roland W. Garwood, Peter S. Guest.

AD-A331 956.

Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology and M.S. in Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).