Identification

Title

Significance of Langmuir circulation in upper ocean mixing: Comparison of observations and simulations

Abstract

Representing upper ocean turbulence accurately in models remains a great challenge for improving weather and climate projections. Langmuir circulation (LC) is a turbulent process driven by wind and surface waves that plays a key role in transferring momentum, heat, and mass in the oceanic surface layer. We present a direct comparison between observations and large eddy simulations, based on the wave-averaged Navier-Stokes equation, of an LC growth event. The evolution of cross-wind velocity variance and spatial scales, as well as mixed layer deepening are only consistent with simulations if LC effects are included in the model. Our results offer a validation of the large eddy simulation approach to understanding LC dynamics, and demonstrate the importance of LC in ocean surface layer mixing.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7f76dkf

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2009-05-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact