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Abstract Several years of moored turbulence measurements fromχpods at three sites in the equatorial cold tongues of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans yield new insights into proxy estimates of turbulence that specifically target the cold tongues. They also reveal previously unknown wind dependencies of diurnally varying turbulence in the near-critical stratified shear layers beneath the mixed layer and above the core of the Equatorial Undercurrent that we have come to understand as deep cycle (DC) turbulence. Isolated by the mixed layer above, the DC layer is only indirectly linked to surface forcing. Yet, it varies diurnally in concert with daily changes in heating/cooling. Diurnal composites computed from 10-min averaged data at fixedχpod depths show that transitions from daytime to nighttime mixing regimes are increasingly delayed with weakening wind stressτ. These transitions are also delayed with respect to depth such that they follow a descent rate of roughly 6 m h⁻¹, independent ofτ. We hypothesize that this wind-dependent delay is a direct result of wind-dependent diurnal warm layer deepening, which acts as the trigger to DC layer instability by bringing shear from the surface downward but at rates much slower than 6 m h⁻¹. This delay in initiation of DC layer instability contributes to a reduction in daily averaged values of turbulence dissipation. Both the absence of descending turbulence in the sheared DC layer prior to arrival of the diurnal warm layer shear and the magnitude of the subsequent descent rate after arrival are roughly predicted by laboratory experiments on entrainment in stratified shear flows. Significance StatementOnly recently have long time series measurements of ocean turbulence been available anywhere. Important sites for these measurements are the equatorial cold tongues where the nature of upper-ocean turbulence differs from that in most of the world’s oceans and where heat uptake from the atmosphere is concentrated. Critical to heat transported downward from the mixed layer is the diurnally varying deep cycle of turbulence below the mixed layer and above the core of the Equatorial Undercurrent. Even though this layer does not directly contact the surface, here we show the influence of the surface winds on both the magnitude of the deep cycle turbulence and the timing of its descent into the depths below. 

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.