HR: 14:35h
AN: OS52G-03    [PDF]
TI: Profiles of Turbulent Stress Immediately Beneath Breaking Wind Waves.
AU: * Stanton, T
EM: stanton@nps.navy.mil
AF: Naval Postgraduate School, Department of Oceanography Code Oc/St, NPS, Monterey, CA 93924 United States
AB: High resolution velocity and acoustic backscatter profiles have been made under wind waves during the CBLAST airsea interaction experiment in August 2003. A five beam bistatic acoustic doppler profiler non-invasively measured three component velocity vectors with 1.5cm vertical and 3cm horizontal bins over a 1.5m range, spanning the wave-displaced ocean surface. These high temporal and spatial resolution continuous profiles are being analyzed to study turbulent structures and net stresses under wind forced ocean waves using a surface-referenced coordinate system. This method allows the depth penetration of episodic mixing events associated with breaking waves to be quantified and their contribution to stress deeper in the water column to be estimated. Examples of wave displacement, wave slope, bubble injection, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent stress structure will be shown as the local wind speed increased from 3m/s to 9m/s over a three hour period during a typical frontal wind event at the site.
DE: 4504 Air/sea interactions (0312)
DE: 4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes
DE: 4572 Upper ocean processes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting