Near-inertial waves mixing and ocean background observations in the eastern tropical North Atlantic (2006-2019) for evaluating Earth system models

• Main Authors: Fischer, Tim, Dengler, Marcus, Melzer, Hannah
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2024
• Subjects: Description; microstructure; near-inertial waves; netCDF file; tropical Atlantic; Turbulent dissipation; turbulent fluxes; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.964317; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.964317

A synoptic data set of near-inertial wave (NIW) mixing events and associated heat and momentum fluxes as well as oceanic background parameters is provided. The data set focuses on the vertical distribution of upper-ocean turbulence of 20 NIW events observed during 14 research cruises to the eastern tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) between 2006 and 2019. These 20 NIW events have been detected from ship ADCP records, based on velocities from the topmost usable bin. In order to be detectable, NIWs needed to exceed a velocity amplitude threshold of about 0.1 to 0.2 m/s during an observation time of at least 0.5 to 1 inertial periods. The data set includes (1) an average profile of turbulent dissipation rate of the detectable ETNA NIW events, plus data of the 67 local ship stations which contributed turbulent microstructure profiles to the average; (2) one file for each detectable NIW event (20 in total), containing current velocity profiles, and derived variables like vertical shear or mixed layer depth; (3) one file for each research cruise with at least one detected NIW event (14 research cruises in total), which contain timeseries for the entire time coverage inside ETNA, for the topmost current velocity as for ship based data related to surface heat and momentum fluxes. The data set is provided for evaluating vertical mixing schemes of NextGEMS (Next Generation Earth Modelling Systems) and other Earth system models.