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Turbulence and high-frequency variability in a deep gravity current outflow
- Source :
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- American Geophysical Union, 2012.
-
Abstract
- 6 pages, 4 figures<br />Intensive sampling of the deep Mediterranean outflow 70 km W of the Strait of Gibraltar reveals a strong, tidally modulated gravity current embedded with large-amplitude oscillations and energetic turbulence. The flow appears to be hydraulically controlled at a small topographic constriction, with turbulence and internal waves varying together and increasing dramatically downstream of the choke point. These data suggest that a significant fraction of energy dissipation, mixing, and entrainment stress in gravity currents may occur in localized regions controlled by time-varying flow interactions with fine-scale topography. These findings highlight the important role of processes that are not resolved by global climate models (GCMs), which do not contain tides or mixing due to fine-scale topographic interactions. © 2012. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved<br />This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, grants OCE-0825287, OCE-0825297, and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, grants CTM2008-06438-C02-01 and CTM2008-03422-E/MAR
- Subjects :
- Turbulence
Deep outflows
Gravity currents
Internal waves
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
- Accession number :
- edsair.dedup.wf.001..bdc84022a5f88059f35b6d669632db6a