Influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence characteristics

Guojing LI; Changming DONG; Jiayi PAN; Adam T. DEVLIN; Dongxiao WANG

doi:10.1007/s00343-022-1123-4

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Influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence characteristics

Physics | Updated：2023-04-27

- Influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence characteristics
- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology Vol. 41, Issue 1, Pages: 17-37(2023)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
  2.Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
  3.Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
  4.Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510301, China
- Author bio：
  
  Dongxiao WANG, E-mail: dxwang@scsio.ac.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-022-1123-4
  CLC：
- Received：21 April 2021，
  
  Accepted：18 July 2021，
  
  Online First：12 January 2022，
  
  Published：2023-01
- Accepted：
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Guojing LI, Changming DONG, Jiayi PAN, et al. Influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence characteristics[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2023, 41(1): 17-37.
DOI：

Guojing LI, Changming DONG, Jiayi PAN, et al. Influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence characteristics[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2023, 41(1): 17-37. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-022-1123-4.

摘要

Abstract

The upper mixed layer depth (

) has a significant seasonal variation in the real ocean and the low-order statistics of Langmuir turbulence are dramatically influenced by the upper mixed layer depth. To explore the influence of the upper mixed layer depth on Langmuir turbulence under the condition of the wind and wave equilibrium

the changes of Langmuir turbulence characteristics with the idealized variation of the upper mixed layer depth from very shallow (

=5 m) to deep enough (

=40 m) are studied using a non-hydrostatic large eddy simulation model. The simulation results show that there is a direct entrainment depth induced by Langmuir turbulence (

) within the thermocline. The normalized depthaveraged vertical velocity variance is smaller and larger than the downwind velocity variance for the ratio of the upper mixed layer to a direct entrainment depth induced by Langmuir turbulence

1 and

respectively

indicating that turbulence characteristics have the essential change (i.e.

depth-averaged vertical velocity variance (DAVV)

depth-averaged downwind velocity variance (DADV) for shear turbulence and DAVV

DADV for Langmuir turbulence) between

1 and

1. The rate of change of the normalized depth-averaged low-order statistics for

1 is much larger than that for

1. The reason is that the downward pressure perturbation induced by Langmuir cells is strongly inhibited by the upward reactive force of the strong stratified thermocline for

1 and the effect of upward reactive force on the downward pressure perturbation becomes weak for

1. Hence

the upper mixed layer depth has significant influences on Langmuir turbulence characteristics.

关键词

Keywords

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