In:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, American Geophysical Union (AGU), Vol. 96, No. C10 ( 1991-10-15), p. 18447-18474
Kurzfassung:
The steady flow in and near a turbulent boundary layer on a sloping boundary is considered, for a nonrotating stratified fluid. It is shown that the effect of nonuniform stratification in the interior (i.e., away from the turbulent layer) is to induce a convergent‐divergent flow in the boundary layer which results in an inflow or outflow to the interior. This inflow‐outflow acts in a divergent‐convergent manner on the interior isopycnals. Use of a filling‐box argument for the slow time variation of the interior then produces an approximate expression for an effective interior vertical diffusivity. The parameter dependence of this diffusivity is very strong; however, with realistic geophysical values (subject to the omission of rotation), e.g., a mixed layer depth of 50 m, Munk's canonical value of 10 −4 m 2 s −1 can easily be achieved. This work thus supports the view that boundary mixing is likely to be an important process in setting the vertical density profile in the ocean.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
0148-0227
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Publikationsdatum:
1991
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2033040-6
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3094104-0
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2130824-X
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2016813-5
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SSG:
16,13
