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  • Ocean circulation  (89)
  • Oceanic mixing  (32)
  • Chemistry
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  (113)
  • 1
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution March, 1980
    Description: The Southern Ocean as defined here is the body of water between the Antarctic Continent and the Antarctic Polar Front, (APF). This ocean is considered important in the global thermodynamic balance of the ocean-atmosphere system because large planetary heat losses are believed to occur at high latitudes. The ocean and atmosphere must transport heat poleward to balance these losses. In the Southern Hemisphere, the oceanic contribution to this flux involves a southward transport of heat across the APF into the Southern Ocean where it is given up to the atmosphere through air-sea interactions. In Part I, the air-sea interactions and structure of the near surface waters of the Southern Ocean are investigated with a three dimensional time dependent numerical model. The surface waters in this region in summer are characterized by a relatively warm surface mixed layer with low salinity. Below this layer, a cold temperature extremum is usually observed in vertical profiles which is believed to be the remnant of a deep surface mixed layer produced in winter. The characteristics of this layer, the surface mixed layer and the observed distribution of wintertime sea ice are reproduced well by this model. Unlike some other sea-ice models the air-sea heat exchange is a free variable. Model estimates of the annual heat loss by the Southern Ocean exhibit the observed meridional variation of heat gained by the ocean along the APF with heat lost further south. The model's area average heat loss is much smaller than that estimated with direct observations. While several model parameterizations were made which could be in error, the model results suggest that the Southern Ocean does give up vast amounts of heat to the atmosphere away from the continental margins. The model results and direct calculations of air-sea exchanges suggest a southward heat flux must occur across the APF. The lateral water mass transition across the front is not discontinuous but occurs over a finite sized zone of fluid which is dominated by intrusive finestructure. The characteristics and dynamics of these features are investigated in Part II to try and assess their importance in the meridional heat budget. Observations made on two cruises to the APF are presented and the space-time scales of the features and thermohaline characteristics are discussed. It is suggested that double diffusive processes dominated by salt fingering are active within the intrusions. An extension of Stern's (1967) model of the stability of a thermohaline front to intrusive finestructure driven by saltfingering where small scale viscous processes are included, is presented to explain why intrusions are observed in frontal zones. The model successfully predicts vertical scales of intrusions observed in the ocean and the observed dependence of the intrusions' slopes across density surfaces on the vertical scale. Since the fastest growing intrusion is not strongly determined by the model, though, it is likely that finite amplitude effects determine the dominant scale of interleaving in the ocean. The analysis predicts that intrusions transport heat, salt and density down the mean gradients of the front. For the APF, this heat flux is poleward which is the direction required by the global heat budget. This model does not describe intrusions at finite amplitude or in steady state and so cannot be used to estimate the magnitude of the poleward heat flux due to intrusions in the APF.
    Description: The research reported on here, and my support as a graduate student was provided by the National Science Foundation through grants OCE 75 14056. OCE 76 82036 and OCE 77 28355.
    Keywords: Ocean-atmosphere interaction ; Ocean temperature ; Oceanic mixing ; Heat budget ; Sea ice ; Convection ; Fronts ; Thomas G. Thompson (Ship) Cruise TN107 ; Knorr (Ship : 1970-) Cruise KN73
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Thesis
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  • 2
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 2007.
    Description: The water circulation and evolution of water temperature over the inner continental shelf are investigated using observations of water velocity, temperature, density, and bottom pressure; surface gravity waves; wind stress; and heat flux between the ocean and atmosphere during 2001-2007. When waves are small, cross-shelf wind stress is the dominant mechanism driving cross-shelf circulation. The along-shelf wind stress does not drive a substantial cross-shelf circulation. The response to a given wind stress is stronger in summer than winter. The cross-shelf transport in the surface layer during winter agrees with a two-dimensional, unstratified model. During large waves and onshore winds the cross-shelf velocity is nearly vertically uniform, because the wind- and wave-driven shears cancel. During large waves and offshore winds the velocity is strongly vertically sheared because the wind- and wave-driven shears have the same sign. The subtidal, depth-average cross-shelf momentum balance is a combination of geostrophic balance and a coastal set-up and set-down balance driven by the cross-shelf wind stress. The estimated wave radiation stress gradient is also large. The dominant along-shelf momentum balance is between the wind stress and pressure gradient, but the bottom stress, acceleration, Coriolis, Hasselmann wave stress, and nonlinear advection are not negligible. The fluctuating along-shelf pressure gradient is a local sea level response to wind forcing, not a remotely generated pressure gradient. In summer, the water is persistently cooled due to a mean upwelling circulation. The cross-shelf heat flux nearly balances the strong surface heating throughout midsummer, so the water temperature is almost constant. The along-shelf heat flux divergence is apparently small. In winter, the change in water temperature is closer to that expected due to the surface cooling. Heat transport due to surface gravity waves is substantial.
    Description: My last three years of thesis work were supported by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters under the Earth System Science Fellowship Grant NNG04GQ14H, and by WHOI Academic Programs Fellowship Funds. I also benefited from the freedom of a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship during my first year in the Joint Program, which allowed me more time than is usual to explore different research topics before choosing an advisor. This research was also funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant NNG04GL03G and the Ocean Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation under grants OCE-0241292 and OCE-0548961. The Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory is partly funded by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Jewett/EDUC/Harrison Foundation. The ADCP deployments at CBLAST site F were funded by National Science Foundation Small Grant for Exploratory Research OCE-0337892. Ship time for deployment and recovery of the F ADCP was provided by Robert Weller through Office of Naval Research contracts N00014-01-1-0029 and N00014-05-10090 for the Low-Wind Component of the Coupled Boundary Layers Air-Sea Transfer Experiment.
    Keywords: Ocean circulation ; Ocean-atmosphere interaction
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 3
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 February 2003
    Description: Oceanic observations indicate that abyssal mixing is localized in regions of rough topography. How locally mixed fluid interacts with the ambient fluid is an open question. Laboratory experiments explore the interaction of mechanically induced boundary mixing and an interior body of linearly stratified rotating fluid. A single oscillating bar produces a small region of turbulence along the wall at middepth. Mixed fluid quickly reaches a steady state height set by a turbulent-buoyant balance, independent of rotation. Initially, the bar is exposed on three sides. Mixed fluid intrudes directly into the interior rather than forming a boundary current. The circulation patterns suggest a model of unmixed fluid being laterally entrained into the turbulent zone. In accord with the model, observed outflux is constant, independent of stratification and restricted by rotation. Later the bar is laterally confines between two walls, which form a channel opening into the basin. A small percentage of mixed fluid enters a boundary current, which exits the channel. The bulk forms a cyclonic circulation in front of the bar, which blocks the channel and restricts horizontal entrainment. In the confined case, the volume flux of mixed fluid decays with time.
    Description: This work was supported by the Ocean Ventures Fund, the Westcott Fund and the WHOI Education Office. Financial support was also provided by the National Science Foundation through grant OCE-9616949.
    Keywords: Oceanic mixing ; Turbulence ; Rotating masses of fluid ; Fluid dynamics
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  • 4
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 February 2009
    Description: Observations and inverse models suggest that small-scale turbulent mixing is enhanced in the Southern Ocean in regions above rough topography. The enhancement extends 1 km above the topography suggesting that mixing is supported by breaking of gravity waves radiated from the ocean bottom. In other regions, gravity wave radiation by bottom topography has been primarily associated with the barotropic tide. In this study, we explore the alternative hypothesis that the enhanced mixing in the Southern Ocean is sustained by internal waves generated by geostrophic motions flowing over bottom topography. Weakly-nonlinear theory is used to describe the internal wave generation and the feedback of the waves on the zonally averaged flow. A major finding is that the waves generated at the ocean bottom at finite inverse Froude numbers drive vigorous inertial oscillations. The wave radiation and dissipation at equilibrium is therefore the result of both geostrophic flow and inertial oscillations and differs substantially from the classical lee wave problem. The theoretical predictions are tested versus two-dimensional and three-dimensional high resolution numerical simulations with parameters representative of the Drake Passage region. Theory and fully nonlinear numerical simulations are used to estimate internal wave radiation from LADCP, CTD and topography data from two regions in the Southern Ocean: Drake Passage and the Southeast Pacific. The results show that radiation and dissipation of internal waves generated by geostrophic motions reproduce the magnitude and distribution of dissipation measured in the region.
    Keywords: Internal waves ; Oceanic mixing
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 5
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 2009
    Description: Interaction between the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the continental slope/shelf in the Marguerite Bay and west Antarctic Peninsula is examined as interaction between a wind-driven channel flow and a zonally uniform slope with a bay-shaped shelf to the south. Two control mechanisms, eddy advection and propagation of topographic waves, are identified in barotropic vortex-escarpment interactions. The two mechanisms advect the potential vorticity (PV) perturbations in opposite directions in anticyclone-induced interactions but in the same direction in cyclone-induced interactions, resulting in dramatic differences in the two kinds of interactions. The topographic waves become more nonlinear near the western(eastern if in the Northern Hemisphere) boundary of the bay, where strong cross-escarpment motion occurs. In the interaction between a surface anticyclone and a slope penetrating into the upper layer in a two-layer isopycnal model, the eddy advection decays on length scales on the order of the internal deformation radius, so shoreward over a slope that is wider than the deformation radius, the wave mechanism becomes noticeably significant. It acts to spread the cross-isobath transport in a much wider range while the transport directly driven by the anticyclone is concentrated in space. A two-layer wind-driven channel flow is constructed to the north of the slope in the Southern Hemisphere, spontaneously generating eddies through baroclinic instability. A PV front forms in the first layer shoreward of the base of the topography due to the lower-layer eddy-slope interactions. Perturbed by the jet in the center of the channel, the front interacts with the slope/shelf persistently yet episodically, driving a clockwise mean circulation within the bay as well as crossisobath transport. Both the transports across the slope edge and out of the bay are comparable with the maximum Ekman transport in the channel, indicative of the significance of the examined mechanism. The wave-boundary interaction identified in the barotropic model is found essential for the out-of-bay transport and responsible for the heterogeneity of the transport within the bay. Much more water is transported out of the bay from the west than from the east, and the southeastern area is the most isolated region. These results suggest that strong out-of-bay transport may be found near the western boundary of the Marguerite Bay while the southeastern region is a retention area where high population of Antarctic krill may be found.
    Keywords: Ocean currents ; Ocean circulation
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Thesis
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  • 6
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution August 1987
    Description: Several problems connected by the theme of thermal forcing are addressed herein. The main topic is the stratification and flow field resulting from imposing a specified heat flux on a fluid that is otherwise confined to a rigid insulating basin. In addition to the traditional eddy viscosity and diffusivity, turbulent processes are also included by a convective overturning adjustment at locations where the local density field is unstable. Two classes of problems are treated. The first is the large scale meridional pattern of a fluid in an annulus. The detailed treatment is carried out in two steps. In the beginning (chapter 2) it is assumed that the fluid is very diffusive, hence, to first approximation no flow field is present. It is found that the convective overturning adjustment changes the character of the stratification in all the regions that are cooled from the top, resulting in a temperature field that is nearly depth independent in the northernmost latitudes. The response to a seasonal cycle in the forcing, and the differences between averaging the results from the end of each season compared to driving the fluid by a mean forcing are analyzed. In particular, the resulting sea surface temperature is warmer in the former procedure. This observation is important in models where the heat flux is sensitive to the gradient of air to sea surface temperatures. The analysis of the problem continues in chapter 5 where the contribution of the flow field is included in the same configuration. The dimensionless parameter controlling the circulation is now the Rayleigh number, which is a measure of the relative importance of gravitational and viscous forces. The effects of the convective overturning adjustment is investigated at different Rayleigh numbers. It is shown that not only is the stratification now always stable, but also that the vigorous vertical mixing reduces the effective Rayleigh number; thereby the flow field is more moderate, the thermocline deepens, and the horizontal surface temperature gradients are weaker. The interior of the fluid is colder compared to cases without convective overturning, and, because the amount of heat in the system is assumed to be fixed, the surface temperature is warmer. The fluid is not only forced by a mean heat flux, or a seasonally varying one, but its behavior under permanent winter and summer conditions is also investigated. A steady state for the experiments where the net heat flux does not vanish is defined as that state where the flow field and temperature structure are not changing with time except for an almost uniform temperature decrease or increase everywhere. It is found that when winter conditions prevail the circulation is very strong, while it is rather weak for continuous summer forcing. In contrast to those results, if a yearly cycle is imposed, the circulation tends to reach a minimum in the winter time and a maximum in the summer. This suggests that, depending on the Rayleigh number, there is a phase leg of several months between the response of the ocean and the imposed forcing. Differences between the two averaging procedures mentioned before are also observed when the flow field is present, especially for large Rayleigh numbers. The circulation is found to be weaker and the sea surface temperature colder in the mean of the seasonal realizations compared to the steady state derived by the mean forcing. As an extension to the numerical results, an analytic model is presented in chapter 4 for a similar annular configuration. The assumed dynamics is a bit different, with a mixed layer on top of a potential vorticity conserving interior. It is demonstrated that the addition of the thermal wind balance to the conservation of potential vorticity in the axially symmetric problem leads to the result that typical fluid trajectories in the interior are straight lines pointing downward going north to south. The passage of information in the system is surprisingly in the opposite sense to the clockwise direction of the flow. A model for water mass formation by buoyancy loss in the absence of a flow field is introduced in chapter 3. The idea behind it is to use the turbulent mixing parameterization to generate chimney-like structures in open water, followed by along-isopycnal advection and diffusion. This model can be applied to many observations of mode water. In particular, in this work it is related to the chimneys observed by the MEDOC Group (1970), and the Levantine Intermediate Water in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. An analytic prediction of the depth of the water mass is derived and depends on the forcing and initial stratification. It suggests that the depth of shallow mode water like the 18°C water or the Levantine Intermediate Water would not be very sensitive to reasonable changes in atmospheric forcing. Similar conclusions were also reached by Warren (1972) by assuming that the temperature in the thermocline decreases linearly with depth, and by approximating the energy balance in a water column by a Newtonian cooling law.
    Keywords: Ocean-atmosphere interaction ; Ocean circulation
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 7
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution December 1999
    Description: A new, global inversion is used to estimate the large scale oceanic circulation based on the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and Java Australia Dynamic Experiment hydrographic data. A linear inverse "box" model is used to combine consistently the transoceanic sections. The circulation is geostrophic with an Ekman layer at the surface and oceanic layers defined by neutral surfaces. Near-conservation of mass, salt and top-to-bottom silica is required and, in addition, heat and the phosphate-oxygen combination (170[P04]+[02]) are conserved in layers that are not in contact with the surface. A globally-consistent solution is obtained for a depth-independent adjustment to the thermal wind field, freshwater flux divergenees, the Ekman transport, and the advective and diffusive dianeutral fluxes between layers. A detailed error budget permits calculation of statistical uncertainties, taking into account both the non-resolved part of the solution and the systematic errors due to the temporal oceanic variability. The estimated water mass transports during the WOCE period (1985-1996) are generally similar to previous published estimates. However, important differences are found. In particular, the inflow of bottom waters into the Pacific Ocean is smaller than in most previous estimates. Utilization of property anomaly conservation constraints allows the estimation of significant dianeutral diffusivities in deep layers, with a global average of 3 ± lcm2s- 1 north of 30°S. Dianeutral transfers indicate that about 20 Sv of bottom water is formed in the Southern Ocean. Significant ocean-atmosphere heat fluxes are found, with a global heating of 2.3 ± 0.4PW in the tropical band and a corresponding cooling at high latitudes. The signature of a large-scale average export production is found for nutrients in several temperate regions. Despite the large uncertainties, the production magnitudes are consistent with independent measurements from sediment traps and isotopic data. Net nutrient sources or sinks are found in several regions, suggesting either transport of dissolved organic matter or a seasonal alias. Oxygen indicates large exchanges with the atmosphere, with intake at high latitudes and outgassing/remineralization at low latitudes.
    Description: This work was supported in part by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/CALTECH (contract #958125), and by gifts from Ford, General Motors, and Daimler-Chrysler to MIT's Climate Modelling Initiative.
    Keywords: Computer simulation ; Ocean circulation ; Ocean currents
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  • 8
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 March 1988
    Description: Inverse methods are applied to historical hydrographic data to address two aspects of the general circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. The method allows conservation statements for mass and other properties, along with a variety of other constraints, to be combined in a dynamically consistent way to estimate the absolute velocity field and associated property transports. The method is first used to examine the exchange of mass and heat between the South Atlantic and the neighboring ocean basins. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) carries a surplus of intermediate water into the South Atlantic through Drake Passage which is compensated by a surplus of deep and bottom water leaving the basin south of Africa. As a result, the ACC loses .25±.18x1015 W of heat in crossing the Atlantic. At 32°S the meridional flux of heat is .25±.19x1015 W equatorward, consistent in sign but smaller in magnitude than other recent estimates. This heat flux is carried primarily by a meridional overturning cell in which the export of 17 Sv of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is balanced by an equatorward return flow equally split between the surface layers, and the intermediate and bottom water. No "leak" of warm Indian Ocean thermocline water is necessary to account for the equatorward heat flux across 32°S; in fact, a large transfer of warm water from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic is found to be inconsistent with the present data set. Together these results demonstrate that the Atlantic as a whole acts to convert intermediate water to deep and bottom water, and thus that the global thermohaline cell associated with the formation and export of NADW is closed primarily by a "cold water path," in which deep water leaving the Atlantic ultimately returns as intermediate water entering the basin through Drake Passage. The second problem addressed concerns the circulation and property fluxes across 24°and 36°N in the subtropical North Atlantic. Conservation statements are considered for the nutrients as well as mass, and the nutrients are found to contribute significant information independent of temperature and salinity. Silicate is particularly effective in reducing the indeterminacy of circulation estimates based on mass conservation alone. In turn, the results demonstrate that accurate estimates of the chemical fluxes depend on relatively detailed knowledge of the circulation. The zonal-integral of the circulation consists of an overturning cell at both latitudes, with a net export of 19 Sv of NADW. This cell results in a poleward heat flux of 1.3±.2x1015 Wand an equatorward oxygen flux of 2900±180 kmol S-l across each latitude. The net flux of silicate is also equatorward: 138±38 kmol s-1 and 152±56 kmol s -1 across 36°and 24° N, respectively. However, in contrast to heat and oxygen, the overturning cell is not the only important mechanism responsible for the net silicate transport. A horizontal recirculation consisting of northward flow of silica-rich deep water in the eastern basin balanced by southward flow of low silica water in the western basin results in a significant silicate flux to the north. The net equatorward flux is thus smaller than indicated by the overturning cell alone. The net flux of nitrate across 36°N is n9±35 kmol 8- 1 to the north and is indistinguishable from zero at 24°N (-8±39 kmol 8-1 ), leading to a net divergence of nitrate between these two latitudes. Forcing the system to conserve nitrate leads to an unreasonable circulation. The dominant contribution to the nitrate flux at 36°N results from the correlation of strong northward flow and relatively high nitrate concentrations in the sub-surface waters of the Gulf Stream. The observed nitrate divergence between 24°and 36°N, and convergence north of 36°N, can be accounted for by a shallow cell in which the northward flow of inorganic nitrogen (nitrate) in the Gulf Stream is balanced by a southward flux of dissolved organic nitrogen in the recirculation gyre. Oxidation of the dissolved organic matter during its transit of the subtropical gyre supplies the required source of regenerated nitrate to the Gulf Stream and consumes oxygen, consistent with recent observations of oxygen utilization in the Sargasso Sea.
    Description: This research was supported by NASA under contract NAG5-534 and NSF under contract OCE-8521685.
    Keywords: Ocean circulation ; Ocean temperature ; Conrad (Ship) Cruise ; Atlantis II (Ship : 1963-) Cruise AII109
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  • 9
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 June 1998
    Description: A freshwater plume often forms when a river or an estuary discharges water onto the continental shelf. Freshwater plumes are ubiquitous features of the coastal ocean and usually leave a striking signature in the coastal hydrography. The present study combines both hydrographic data and idealized numerical simulations to examine how ambient currents and winds influence the transport and mixing of plume waters. The first portion of the thesis considers the alongshore transport of freshwater using idealized numerical simulations. In the absence of any ambient current, the downstream coastal current only carries a fraction of the discharged fresh water; the remaining fraction recirculates in a continually growing "bulge" of fresh water in the vicinity of the river mouth. The fraction of fresh water transported in the coastal current is dependent on the source conditions at the river mouth. The presence of an ambient current augments the transport in the plume so that its freshwater transport matches the freshwater source. For any ambient current in the same direction as the geostrophic coastal current, the plume will evolve to a steady-state width. A key result is that an external forcing agent is required in order for the entire freshwater volume discharged by a river to be transported as a coastal current. The next section of the thesis addresses the wind-induced advection of a river plume, using hydrographic data collected in the western Gulf of Maine. The observations suggest that the plume's cross-shore structure varies markedly as a function of fluctuations in alongshore wind forcing. Consistent with Ekman dynamics, upwelling favorable winds spread the plume offshore, at times widening it to over 50 km in offshore extent, while downwelling favorable winds narrow the plume width to a few Rossby radii. Near-surface current meters show significant correlations between cross-shore currents and alongshore wind stress, consistent with Ekman theory. Estimates of the terms in the alongshore momentum equation calculated from moored current meter arrays also indicate an approximate Ekman balance within the plume. A significant correlation between alongshore currents and alongshore wind stress suggests that interfacial drag may be important. The final section of the thesis is an investigation of the advection and mixing of a surface-trapped river plume in the presence of an upwelling favorable wind stress, using a three-dimensional model in a simple, rectangular domain. Model simulations demonstrate that the plume thins and is advected offshore by the crossshore Ekman transport. The thinned plume is susceptible to significant mixing due to the vertically sheared horizontal currents. The first order plume response is explained by Ekman dynamics and a Richardson number mixing criterion. Under a sustained wind event, the plume evolves to a quasi-steady, uniform thickness. The rate of mixing slowly decreases for longer times as the stratification in the plume weakens, but mixing persists under a sustained upwelling wind until the plume is destroyed. Mixing is most intense at the seaward plume front due to an Ekman straining mechanism in which the advection of cross-shore salinity gradients balances vertical mixing. The mean mixing rate observed in the plume is consistent with the mixing power law suggested by previous studies of I-D mixing, in spite of the two-dimensional dynamics driving the mixing in the plume.
    Description: This research was funded by a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, and Gulf of Maine Regional Marine Research Program grants UM-S227 and UM-S276.
    Keywords: Oceanic mixing ; Hydrography ; Ocean circulation
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  • 10
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    Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: 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 June 2011
    Description: Eastern oceanic boundary currents are subject to hydrodynamic instability, generate small scale features that are visible in satellite images and may radiate westward into the interior, where they can be modified by the large-scale circulations. This thesis studies the stability of an eastern boundary current with and without the large-scale flow influence in an idealized framework represented by barotropic quasi-geostrophic dynamics. The linear stability analysis of a meridional current with a continuous velocity profile shows that meridional eastern and western boundary currents support a limited number of radiating modes with long meridional and zonal wavelengths and small growth rates. However, the linearly stable, long radiating modes of an eastern boundary current can become nonlinearly unstable by resonating with short trapped unstable modes. This phenomenon is clearly demonstrated in the weakly nonlinear simulations. Results suggest that linearly stable longwave modes deserve more attention when the radiating instability of a meridional boundary current is considered. A large-scale flow affects the short trapped unstable mode and long radiating mode through different mechanisms. The large-scale flow modifies the structure of the boundary current to stabilize or destabilize the unstable modes, leading to a meridionally localized maximum in the perturbation kinetic energy field. The shortwave mode is accelerated or decelerated by the meridional velocity adjustment of the large-scale flow to have an elongated or a squeezed meridional structure, which is confirmed both in a linear WKB analysis and in nonlinear simulations. The squeezed or elongated unstable mode detunes the nonlinear resonance with the longwave modes, which then become less energetic. These two modes show different meridional structures in kinetic energy field because of the different mechanisms. In spite of the model simplicity, these results can potentially explain the formation of the zonal jets observed in altimeter data, and indicate the influence of the large-scale wind-driven circulation on eastern boundary upwelling systems in the real ocean. Studies with more realistic configurations remain future challenges.
    Keywords: Meridional overturning circulation ; Ocean circulation
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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