Experimental and Computational Studies of the Dynamics of Combined Wind and Buoyancy Driven Gyres

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

PI: Hart Proposal Number: 0002345 Funds are provided for numerical and rotating tank experiments to investigate thermocline dynamics. The basic set-up is a rotating tank with a differentially rotating upper lid and cooling at the lateral boundaries. The upper lid is maintained hot and the lower lid is maintained cold. (Flux conditions at the bottom and sidewalls can also be prescribed.) The structure of the flow in laboratory simulations will be examined as a function of parameter space over ranges inaccessible to numerical simulation. The stability of a rim current, observed in preliminary experiments, under continuously stratified conditions will be investigated. Response to seasonal forcing, time scales long compared to the rotation time scale, will also be investigated. It is anticipated that these experiments will illuminate the dynamics of upper ocean's response to combined wind and buoyancy forcing, a question which is central to physical oceanography.