Model and Experimental Estimates of Vertical Mixing Intensity in the Sea Upper Homogeneous Layer

Abstract

Purpose. The study is aimed at qualitative and quantitative analysis (based on the updated previously proposed multiscale model) of the experimental data on turbulence intensity and their comparison with theoretical and semi-empirical relationships for the purpose of describing the contributions of various turbulence sources. Methods and Results. A comparative analysis of experimental data and model calculations of turbulence characteristics near the sea surface was performed. The methods of theoretical assessing generation of turbulence in the near-surface sea layer by various physical processes are considered. The results of calculations by the well-known models of turbulent exchange were compared with the experimental data collected by the scientists of the Turbulence Department of MHI, RAS, using the specialized equipment. The analysis results made it possible to determine the possibility of applying the considered models for calculating turbulence intensity under different hydrometeorological conditions. At light winds, none of the models yielded the results which matched the measurement data. At moderate winds, the simulation results showed quite satisfactory agreement with the experiment data; and for strong winds, the multiscale model results were the best. This model was modified to assess the contributions of two other mechanisms of turbulence generation: the Stokes drift and the Langmuir circulations. Conclusions. Objective assessment of the turbulent exchange intensity requires taking into account of three main mechanisms of turbulence generation, namely flow velocity shear, wave motions and wave breaking. Depending on the hydrometeorological situation, each of these mechanisms can dominate in a certain depth range. The calculations performed using the updated model showed that the Stokes drift added 2–17 % to the total dissipation in the upper 30-meter layer, whereas the contribution of the Langmuir circulations calculated through dependence of the vertical velocity of kinetic energy transfer upon the Langmuir number, can reach 15 % for small Langmuir numbers.