This study utilizes a large-eddy simulation (LES) approach to systematically assess the directional variability of wave-driven Langmuir turbulence (LT) in the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) under tropical cyclones (TCs). The Stokes drift vector, which drives LT through the Craik–Leibovich vortex force, is obtained through spectral wave simulations. LT’s direction is identified by horizontally elongated turbulent structures and objectively determined from horizontal autocorrelations of vertical velocities. In spite of a TC’s complex forcing with great wind and wave misalignments, this study finds that LT is approximately aligned with the wind. This is because the Reynolds stress and the depth-averaged Lagrangian shear (Eulerian plus Stokes drift shear) that are key in determining the LT intensity (determined by normalized depth-averaged vertical velocity variances) and direction are also approximately aligned with the wind relatively close to the surface. A scaling analysis of the momentum budget suggests that the Reynolds stress is approximately constant over a near-surface layer with predominant production of turbulent kinetic energy by Stokes drift shear, which is confirmed from the LES results. In this layer, Stokes drift shear, which dominates the Lagrangian shear, is aligned with the wind because of relatively short, wind-driven waves. On the contrary, Stokes drift exhibits considerable amount of misalignments with the wind. This wind–wave misalignment reduces LT intensity, consistent with a simple turbulent kinetic energy model. Our analysis shows that both the Reynolds stress and LT are aligned with the wind for different reasons: the former is dictated by the momentum budget, while the latter is controlled by wind-forced waves.
- Award ID(s):
- 1661052
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10221501
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics
- Volume:
- 910
- ISSN:
- 0022-1120
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract Generating mechanisms and parameterizations for enhanced turbulence in the wake of a seamount in the path of the Kuroshio are investigated. Full-depth profiles of finescale temperature, salinity, horizontal velocity, and microscale thermal-variance dissipation rate up- and downstream of the ∼10-km-wide seamount were measured with EM-APEX profiling floats and ADCP moorings. Energetic turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates
and diapycnal diffusivities above the seamount flanks extend at least 20 km downstream. This extended turbulent wake length is inconsistent with isotropic turbulence, which is expected to decay in less than 100 m based on turbulence decay time of N −1∼ 100 s and the 0.5 m s−1Kuroshio flow speed. Thus, the turbulent wake must be maintained by continuous replenishment which might arise from (i) nonlinear instability of a marginally unstable vortex wake, (ii) anisotropic stratified turbulence with expected downstream decay scales of 10–100 km, and/or (iii) lee-wave critical-layer trapping at the base of the Kuroshio. Three turbulence parameterizations operating on different scales, (i) finescale, (ii) large-eddy, and (iii) reduced-shear, are tested. Averageε vertical profiles are well reproduced by all three parameterizations. Vertical wavenumber spectra for shear and strain are saturated over 10–100 m vertical wavelengths comparable to water depth with spectral levels independent ofε and spectral slopes of −1, indicating that the wake flows are strongly nonlinear. In contrast, vertical divergence spectral levels increase withε . -
more » « less
Abstract Turbulence in the ocean surface layer is forced by a mixture of buoyancy, wind, and wave processes that evolves over time scales from the diurnal scale of buoyancy forcing, through storm time scales, to the annual cycle. This study seeks a predictor for root-mean-square
w (rmsw), a time and surface layer average of turbulent vertical velocityw measured by bottom-mounted vertical-beam acoustic Doppler current profilers, in terms of concurrently measured surface forcing fields. Data used are from two coastal sites, one shallow (LEO, 15-m depth) and one deeper (R2, 26-m depth). The analysis demonstrates that it is possible to predict observed rmsw with a simple linear combination of two scale velocities, one the convective scale velocityfamiliar from the atmospheric literature, the other a scale velocity wS representing combined wind and wave effects. Three variants are considered for this latter scale velocity, the wind stress velocityalone and two forms using both and US , a Stokes velocity characteristic of the surface wave field. At both sites, the two-parameter fit usingalone is least accurate, while fits using the other two variants are essentially indistinguishable. At both sites, the coefficient multiplying is the same, within error bounds, and within the range of previous observations. At the deeper site, the coefficient multiplying the wind/wave scale velocity wS is approximately half that at the shallow site, a difference here attributed to difference in wave character. -
more » « less
Abstract Measurements collected by a Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS) 600 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) off the coast of southern California demonstrate large-scale coherent wave-driven vortices, consistent with Langmuir turbulence (LT), and played a dominant role in structuring turbulent dissipation within the oceanic surface boundary layer. During a 10-h period with sustained wind speeds of 10 m s−1, Langmuir circulations were limited to the upper third of the surface mixed layer by persistent stratification within the water column. The ensemble-averaged circulation, calculated using conditional averaging of acoustic Doppler dual current profile (AD2CP) velocity profiles using elevated backscattering intensity associated with subsurface bubble clouds, indicates that LT vortex pairs were characterized by an energetic downwelling zone flanked by broader, weaker upwelling regions with vertical velocity magnitudes similar to previous numerical studies of LT. Horizontally distributed microstructure estimates of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates were lognormally distributed near the surface in the wave mixing layer with the majority of values falling between wall layer scaling and wave transport layer scaling. Partitioning dissipation rates between downwelling centers and ambient conditions suggests that LT may play a dominant role in elevating dissipation rates in the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) by redistributing wave-breaking turbulence.
-
more » « less
Measurements of collocated fields of atmospheric forcing, surface waves, and mean and turbulent velocities associated with passage of Tropical Storm (TS) Barry over the U.S. Navy Tower R2 on the Georgia continental shelf are presented. A vertical-beam ADCP enables computation of directional surface wave spectra and hence of directional Stokes functions of depth and time, as well as mean (including tidal) and turbulent velocities throughout the water column. Full-depth turbulent velocity and backscatter structures observed during TS Barry are determined to be Langmuir supercells (LS). The LS appear in the present observations and in similar observations from a shallower site only when a surface growth rate g*exceeds a critical value, providing a means of predicting how deep an unstratified water column must be before LS will not be expected. When observed, LS structures at Tower R2 are less organized than archetypical LS structures: we suggest that this result is due primarily to smaller near-bottom growth rate in the deeper water column. Despite g*values above the critical value, and appropriate values of Langmuir and Rayleigh numbers, full-depth velocity/backscatter structures disappear completely for a time between the two wind maxima associated with the TS, as wind veers rapidly clockwise with eye passage to the west of Tower R2. From the observations, the most likely explanation for this hiatus is decreased wave breaking during the period of wind veering, reducing surface supply of “effective” vertical vorticity that dominates generation of Langmuir circulation (LC). This result has significant implications for LES modeling of LC.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2020.980
