Dr. Anastasia Romanou: Teaching
The Mixed Layer Under Sea Ice
Overview
Mixing in the oceanic mixed layer typically involves the surface stress provided
by the atmospheric wind forcing and the buoyancy forcing related to the
thermal exchanges between atmosphere and ocean as well as the precipitation/evaporation
mass input. The presence of sea ice insulates the ocean surface from
the atmospheric influence but applies a surface stress due to the
differential motion of the ice pack relative to the ocean currents below it
and imposes a different kind of buoyancy forcing through
the fresh water (brine) release during ice melting (ice formation).
Regardless of the origin and the kind of surface forcing, momentum and mass
sources/sinks at the surface combined with the turbulence produced within the
ocean column (shear production vs. buoyancy destruction) will modify the properties of
the ocean column (temperature, salinity, momentum).
Computing Facilities
The matlab routines solve for the polar mixed layer
using the McPhee parameterization for turbulent mixing (Local Turbulence
Model). The data used to force the model were collected during the
SHEBA experiment .
Two events will be simulated here: a winter event (November 3-13, 1997) and
a summer event (July 27-August 3, 1998).
1. README first
2. MATLAB routines (press SHIFT key + left-mouse-button-click to download) for UNIX:
A Winter Event
A Summer Event
MATLAB routines for WINDOWS:
A Winter Event
A Summer Event
References
The SHEBA project web page
M. G. McPhee, 1999. Parameterization of mixing in the ocean boundary layer.
J. of Marine Systems, 21, 55-65.
L. H. Kantha and C. A. Clayson, 2000. Small Scale Processes in Geophysical
Fluid Flows. Academic Press, pp 888.
Peter Wadhams, 2000. Ice in the ocean. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. pp 351.