Journal
DEEP-SEA RESEARCH PART II-TOPICAL STUDIES IN OCEANOGRAPHY
Volume 49, Issue 21, Pages 4843-4861Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0967-0645(02)00162-5
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Vertical profiles of ocean temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration, and currents were obtained during austral winter 1997 from a region extending from the northeastern Antarctic Peninsula to the South Orkney Plateau in the northern Weddell Sea. From these data we estimate the spatial variation of shear-driven turbulent mixing and the mean diapycnal diffusivity (K-v) in the main pycnocline. We conclude that the mean upper ocean beat flux in the northwestern Weddell Sea is in the range 2-10Wm(-2). The ocean tide provides a significant fraction of the oceanic kinetic energy in the region: tidal current speeds at the shelf break can approach 50 cm s(-1) compared with mean flows of similar to5-10 cm s(-1). We show that the conversion rate of barotropic to baroclinic semidiurnal tidal energy along the South Scotia Ridge, as a pathway for energy flux to the turbulent microscale, is consistent with the data-based estimates of K,. Baroclinic tides from the ridge can penetrate into the northern Weddell Sea and may explain observed significant velocity shears in the central Powell Basin, hundreds of kilometers from significant topographic features. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available