FastFind »   Lastname: doi:10.1029/ Year: | Advanced Search  

AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Physical: Air/sea interactions
  • Oceanography: Physical: Internal and inertial waves
  • Oceanography: Physical: Eddies and mesoscale processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Upper ocean processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes

Abstract

Wind ringing of the ocean in presence of mesoscale eddies

P. Klein

Laboratoire de Physique des Océans, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Plouzané, France

G. Lapeyre

Laboratoire de Physique des Océans, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Plouzané, France

W. G. Large

Climate and Global Dynamics Division, NCAR, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Recent findings have highlighted the impact of high frequency (HF) winds on the inertial motions and the consequences on the large-scale oceanic circulation [ Wunsch and Ferrari, 2004 ]. Within this context the present study focuses on the role of intermediate scales related to oceanic mesoscale eddies. Results show that a turbulent eddy field does not affect the impact of HF winds on the inertial motions. However the eddies efficiently and permanently concentrate the wind-forced inertial motions in small-scale anticyclonic structures. This leads to a spatially heterogeneous vertical mixing strongly related to the eddy field properties.

Received 16 April 2004; accepted 17 June 2004; published 7 August 2004.

Citation: Klein, P., G. Lapeyre, and W. G. Large (2004), Wind ringing of the ocean in presence of mesoscale eddies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L15306, doi:10.1029/2004GL020274.

Cited By

Please wait one moment ...