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Multiyear turbulence measurements from oceanographic moorings in equatorial Atlantic and Pacific cold tongues reveal similarities in deep cycle turbulence (DCT) beneath the mixed layer (ML) and above the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) core. Diurnal composites of turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate,ϵ, clearly show the diurnal cycles of turbulence beneath the ML in both cold tongues. Despite differences in surface forcing, EUC strength and core depth DCT occurs, and is consistent in amplitude and timing, at all three sites. Time‐mean values ofϵat 30 m depth are nearly identical at all three sites. Variations of averaged values ofϵin the deep cycle layer below 30 m range to a factor of 10 between sites. A proposed scaling in depth that isolates the deep cycle layers and ofϵby the product of wind stress and current shear collapses vertical profiles at all sites to within a factor of 2.

 

Abstract Factors thought to influence deep cycle turbulence in the equatorial Pacific are examined statistically for their predictive capacity using a 13-year moored record that includes microstructure measurements of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate. Wind stress and mean current shear are found to be most predictive of the dissipation rate. Those variables, together with the solar buoyancy flux and the diurnal mixed layer thickness, are combined to make a pair of useful parameterizations. The uncertainty in these predictions is typically 50% greater than the uncertainty in present-day in situ measurements. To illustrate the use of these parameterizations, the record of deep cycle turbulence, measured directly since 2005, is extended back to 1990 based on historical mooring data. The extended record is used to refine our understanding of the seasonal variation of deep cycle turbulence. 

Abstract In low winds (≲2 m s −1 ), diurnal warm layers form but shear in the near-surface jet is too weak to generate shear instability and mixing. In high winds (≳8ms −1 ), surface heat is rapidly mixed downward and diurnal warm layers do not form. Under moderate winds of 3–5 m s −1 , the jet persists for several hours in a state that is susceptible to shear instability. We observe low Richardson numbers of Ri ≈ 0.1 in the top 2 m between 10:00 and 16:00 local time (from 4 h after sunrise to 2 h before sunset). Despite Ri being well below the Ri = 1/4 threshold, instabilities do not grow quickly, nor do they overturn. The stabilizing influence of the sea surface limits growth, a result demonstrated by both linear stability analysis and two-dimensional simulations initialized from observed profiles. In some cases, growth rates are sufficiently small (≪1 h −1 ) that mixing is not expected even though Ri < 1/4. This changes around 16:00–17:00. Thereafter, convective cooling causes the region of unstable flow to move downward, away from the surface. This allows shear instabilities to grow an order of magnitude faster and mix effectively. We corroborate the overall observed diurnal cycle of instability with a freely evolving, two-dimensional simulation that is initialized from rest before sunrise. 

Abstract The origins of an observed weakly sheared nonturbulent (laminar) layer (WSL), and a strongly sheared turbulent layer above the Equatorial Undercurrent core (UCL) in the eastern equatorial Pacific are studied, based mainly on the data from the Tropical Atmosphere and Ocean mooring array. Multiple-time-scale (from 3 to 25 days) equatorial waves were manifested primarily as zonal velocity oscillations with the maximum amplitudes (from 10 to 30 cm s −1 ) occurring at different depths (from the surface to 85-m depths) above the seasonal thermocline. The subsurface-intensified waves led to vertically out-of-phase shear variations in the upper thermocline via destructive interference with the seasonal zonal flow, opposing the tendency for shear instability. These waves were also associated with depth-dependent, multiple-vertical-scale stratification variations, with phase lags of π /2 or π , further altering stability of the zonal current system to vertical shear. The WSL and UCL were consequently formed by coupling of multiple equatorial waves with differing phases, particularly of the previously identified equatorial mode and subsurface mode tropical instability waves (with central period of 17 and 20 days, respectively, in this study), and subsurface-intensified waves with central periods of 6, 5, and 12 days and velocity maxima at 45-, 87-, and 40-m depths, respectively. In addition, a wave-like feature with periods of 50–90 days enhanced the shear throughout the entire UCL. WSLs and UCLs seem to emerge without a preference for particular tropical instability wave phases. The generation mechanisms of the equatorial waves and their joint impacts on thermocline mixing remain to be elucidated. 

The mixing efficiency of stratified turbulence in geophysical fluids has been the subject of considerable controversy. A simple parameterization, devised decades ago when empirical knowledge was scarce, has held up remarkably well. The parameterization rests on the assumption that the flux coefficient Γ has the uniform value 0.2. This note provides a physical explanation for Γ = 0.2 in terms of the “marginal instability” property of forced stratified shear flows, and also sketches a path toward improving on that simple picture by examining cases where it fails.