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Internal swells in the tropics: Near‐inertial wave energy fluxes and dissipation during CINDY
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2016
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Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(5), 3297-3324
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Journal Title:Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
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Description:A developing MJO event in the tropical Indian Ocean triggered wind disturbances that generated inertial oscillations in the surface mixed layer. Subsequent radiation of near-inertial waves below the mixed layer produced strong turbulence in the pycnocline. Linear plane wave dynamics and spectral analysis are used to explain these observations, with the ultimate goal of estimating the wave energy flux in relation to both the energy input by the wind and the dissipation by turbulence. The results indicate that the wave packets carry approximately 30–40% of the wind input of inertial kinetic energy, and propagate in an environment conducive to the occurrence of a critical level set up by a combination of vertical gradients in background relative vorticity and Doppler shifting of wave frequency. Turbulent kinetic energy dissipation measurements demonstrate that the waves lose energy as they propagate in the transition layer as well as in the pycnocline, where approaching this critical level may have dissipated approximately 20% of the wave packet energy in a single event. Our analysis, therefore, supports the notion that appreciable amounts of wind-induced inertial kinetic energy escape the surface boundary layer into the interior. However, a large fraction of wave energy is dissipated within the pycnocline, limiting its penetration into the abyssal ocean.
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Source:Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(5), 3297-3324
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ISSN:2169-9275;2169-9291;
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Rights Information:Other
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Compliance:CHORUS
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