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Observations of Temperature Microstructure in NATRE
- Source :
- Journal of Physical Oceanography. 25:1913-1929
- Publication Year :
- 1995
- Publisher :
- American Meteorological Society, 1995.
-
Abstract
- A new autonomous instrument collected 76 profiles of temperature microstructure over a ten-day period in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic as part of the North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment. The data between 200-m and 350-m depth was used to determine the mean rate of temperature variance dissipation 〈χ〉. The estimated diapycnal diffusivity is Ky = 1.4×10−5 m2 s−1. The distribution of χ is approximately lognormal, suggesting that the 95% confidence limits on 〈χ〉 are ±4%. This uncertainty is less than that caused by the imperfectly known probe response, possible noise spikes on the probes, and variability in the degree of microstructure anisotropy; the latter two effects were estimated from a pair of closely spaced probes. Each of these uncertainties is about ±15%. Statistically significant low-frequency variability of χ is observed with 〈χ〉 decreasing by a factor of 2 between the first and second half of the observation. This low-frequency variability is likely the largest cause of erro...
Details
- ISSN :
- 15200485 and 00223670
- Volume :
- 25
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Physical Oceanography
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........b2077031b58681312fca8f94ce668596
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1995)025<1913:ootmin>2.0.co;2