Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 2005
Description:
A moored profiler record from the western tropical North Atlantic provides the
first continuous time series of temperature, salinity and velocity profiles in a thermohaline
staircase. Variations in the intensity of layering and the evolution of layer
properties are well documented during the 4.3 month record. Such staircases are
the result of strong salt fingering at the interfaces between the mixed layers, and
these data provide unique insights into the dynamics of salt fingers. In particular, a
striking linear correlation between the temperature and salinity of the layers may
be interpreted as resulting from vertical salt finger flux divergences. Data from
this record allow new interpretations of previous work on this topic by McDougall
(1991).
Description:
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants
OCE-0081502 and OCE-0350743
Keywords:
Ocean temperature
;
Salinity
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Thesis
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
