Upper ocean dynamics during the LOTUS and TROPIC HEAT experiments

• Main Author: Schudlich, Rebecca R.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1991
• Subjects: Long Term Upper Ocean Study (LOTUS); Ocean currents; Thomas G. Thompson (Ship) Cruise; Wecoma (Ship) Cruise; Pacific; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5468

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 1991 This thesis examines the effect of mean large-scale currents on the vertical structure of the upper ocean during two recent observational programs: the Long Term Upper Ocean Study (LOTUS) and the TROPIC HEAT experiments. The LOTUS experiment took place in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, a mid-latitude region away from strong mean currents, and extended over one entire seasonal cycle. The TROPIC HEAT experiments took place in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean during two 12-day periods in 1984 and 1987, at opposite extremes of the seasonal cycle. We use observations from these field experiments as well as one-dimensional numerical models of the upper ocean to analyze the dynamics of the vertical structure of the upper ocean at the equator and in mid-latitudes. Due to the different nature of the observations, we focus on the long term mean structure of the upper ocean in the LOTUS observations (Chapters 2 and 3), and on the diurnal cycle in the equatorial upper ocean in our analysis of the TROPIC HEAT observations (Chapters 4 and 5). In the LOTUS observations, we find that the observed current is coherent with the wind over low frequencies (greater than an inertial period). Using a wind-relative averaging method we find good agreement with Ekman transport throughout the first summer and winter of the LOTUS experiment, with the exception of a downwind component in the wintertime. The mean current spiral is flat compared to the classic Ekman spiral, in that it rotates less with depth than does the Ekman spiral. The mean current has an e-folding depth scale of 12m in the summer and 25 min the winter. Diurnal cycling is the dominant variability in the summer and determines the vertical structure of the spiral. In the winter, diurnal cycling is almost non-existent due to greatly reduced solar insolation. There is a ...