Budgets of nitrate, dissolved oxygen, and particulate organic carbon (POC) were constructed from data collected on-board a Lagrangian, profiling float deployed between April 4 and May 25, 2008, as part of the North Atlantic Bloom Experiment. These measurements were used to estimate net community production (NCP) and apparent export of POC along the float trajectory. A storm resulting in deep mixing and temporary suspension of net production separated the bloom into early (April 23–27) and main (May 6–13) periods over which ~264 and ~805 mmol C m^-2 were produced, respectively. Subtraction of the total POC production from the NCP yielded maximum estimates of apparent POC export amounting to ~92 and 574 mmol C m^-2 during the early and main blooms, respectively. The bloom terminated the following day and ~282 mmol C m^-2 were lost due to net respiration (70%) and apparent export (30%). Thus, the majority of the apparent export of POC occurred continuously during the main bloom and a large respiration event occurred during bloom Termination. A comparison of the POC flux during the main bloom period with independent estimates at greater depth suggest a rapid rate of remineralization between 60 and 100 m. We suggest the high rates of remineralization in the upper layers could explain the apparent lack of carbon overconsumption (C:N>6.6) in the North Atlantic during the spring bloom.

Large-amplitude (100–200 m) nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) were observed on the continental slope in the northern South China Sea nearly diurnally during the spring tide. The evolution of one NLIW as it propagated up the continental slope is described. The NLIW arrived at the slope as a nearly steady-state solitary depression wave. As it propagated up the slope, the wave propagation speed C decreased dramatically from 2 to 1.3 m s^-1, while the maximum along-wave current speed U_max remained constant at 2 m s^-1. As U_max exceeded C, the NLIW reached its breaking limit and formed a subsurface trapped core with closed streamlines in the coordinate frame of the propagating wave. The trapped core consisted of two counter-rotating vortices feeding a jet within the core. It was highly turbulent with 10–50-m density overturnings caused by the vortices acting on the background stratification, with an estimated turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate of O(10^-4) W kg^-1 and an eddy diffusivity of O(10^-1) m² s^-1. The core mixed continually with the surrounding water and created a wake of mixed water, observed as an isopycnal salinity anomaly. As the trapped core formed, the NLIW became unsteady and dissipative and broke into a large primary wave and a smaller wave. Although shoaling alone can lead to wave fission, the authors hypothesize that the wave breaking and the trapped core evolution may further trigger the fission process. These processes of wave fission and dissipation continued so that the NLIW evolved from a single deep-water solitary wave as it approached the continental slope into a train of smaller waves on the Dongsha Plateau. Observed properties, including wave width, amplitude, and propagation speed, are reasonably predicted by a fully nonlinear steady-state internal wave model, with better agreement in the deeper water. The agreement of observed and modeled propagation speed is improved when a reasonable vertical profile of background current is included in the model.

Each spring, increasing sunlight and associated changes in the ocean structure trigger rapid growth of phytoplankton across most of the North Atlantic Ocean north of 30°N. The bloom, one of the largest in the world, is a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide and a prototype for similar blooms around the world. Models of the ocean carbon cycle, a necessary component of climate models, need to accurately reproduce the biological, chemical, and physical processes occurring during these blooms. However, a paucity of detailed observations severely limits efforts to evaluate such models.

The application of new technologies has allowed oceanographers and meteorologists to study the ocean beneath typhoons in detail. Recent studies in the western Pacific Ocean reveal new insights into the influence of the ocean on typhoon intensity.

An aggregate flux event was observed by ship and by four underwater gliders during the 2008 sub-polar North Atlantic spring bloom experiment (NAB08). At the height of the diatom bloom, aggregates were observed as spikes in measurements of both particulate backscattering coefficient (bbp) and chlorophyll a fluorescence. Optical sensors on the ship and gliders were cross-calibrated through a series of simultaneous profiles, and bbp was converted to particulate organic carbon. The aggregates sank as a discrete pulse, with an average sinking rate of ~75 m^2 d^-1; 65% of aggregate backscattering and 90% of chlorophyll fluorescence content was lost between 100 m and 900 m. Mean aggregate organic carbon flux at 100 m in mid-May was estimated at 514 mg C m^2 d^-1, consistent with independent flux estimates. The use of optical spikes observed from gliders provides unprecedented coupled vertical and temporal resolution measurements of an aggregate flux event.

The Mariana Arc of ridges and islands forms an ~1300-km-long arc of a circle, ~630 km in radius centered at 17N, 139.6E. The hypothesis that the westward-propagating internal tides originating from the arc converge in a focal region is tested by examining the dominant M2 internal tides observed with air-launched expendable bathythermographs (AXBTs) and altimetric data from multiple satellites. The altimetric and AXBT observations agree well, though they measure different aspects of the internal tidal motion. M2 internal tides radiate both westward and eastward from the Mariana Arc, with isophase lines parallel to the arc and sharing the same center. The westward-propagating M2 internal tides converge in a focal region, and diverge beyond the focus. The focusing leads to energetic M2 internal tides in the focal region. The spatially smoothed energy flux is about 6.5 kW/m, about four times the mean value at the arc; the spatially un-smoothed energy flux may reach up to 17 kW/m. The size of the focus is close to the Rayleigh estimate; it is thus a perfect focus.

The North Atlantic spring bloom is one of the main events that lead to carbon export to the deep ocean and drive oceanic uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere. Here we use a suite of physical, bio-optical and chemical measurements made during the 2008 spring bloom to optimize and compare three different models of biological carbon export. The observations are from a Lagrangian float that operated south of Iceland from early April to late June, and were calibrated with ship-based measurements. The simplest model is representative of typical NPZD models used for the North Atlantic, while the most complex model explicitly includes diatoms and the formation of fast sinking diatom aggregates and cysts under silicate limitation. We carried out a variational optimization and error analysis for the biological parameters of all three models, and compared their ability to replicate the observations. The observations were sufficient to constrain most phytoplankton-related model parameters to accuracies of better than 15%. However, the lack of zooplankton observations leads to large uncertainties in model parameters for grazing. The simulated vertical carbon flux at 100 m depth is similar between models and agrees well with available observations, but at 600 m the simulated flux is larger by a factor of 2.5 to 4.5 for the model with diatom aggregation. While none of the models can be formally rejected based on their misfit with the available observations, the model that includes export by diatom aggregation has a statistically significant better fit to the observations and more accurately represents the mechanisms and timing of carbon export based on observations not included in the optimization. Thus models that accurately simulate the upper 100 m do not necessarily accurately simulate export to deeper depths.

The ocean surface boundary layer mediates air-sea exchange. In the classical paradigm and in current climate models, its turbulence is driven by atmospheric forcing. Observations at a 1-km-wide front within the Kuroshio found the rate of energy dissipation within the boundary layer to be enhanced by 10 to 20 times, suggesting that the front not the atmospheric forcing supplied the energy for the turbulence. The data quantitatively support the hypothesis that winds aligned with the frontal velocity catalyzed a release of energy from the front to the turbulence. The resulting boundary layer is stratified, in contrast to the classically well-mixed layer. These effects will be strongest at the intense fronts found in the Kuroshio, Gulf Stream, and Antarctic Circumpolar Current, key players in the climate system.

Spring diatom blooms are important for sequestering atmospheric CO2 below the permanent thermocline in the form of particulate organic carbon (POC). We measured downward POC flux during a sub-polar North Atlantic spring bloom at 100 m using thorium-234 (234Th) disequilibria, and below 100 m using neutrally buoyant drifting sediment traps. The cruise followed a Lagrangian float, and a pronounced diatom bloom occurred in a 600 km² area around the float. Particle flux was low during the first three weeks of the bloom, between 10 and 30 mg POC m/d. Then, nearly 20 days after the bloom had started, export as diagnosed from 234Th rose to 360-620 mg POC m²/d, co-incident with silicate depletion in the surface mixed layer. Sediment traps at 600 and 750 m depth collected 160 and 150 mg POC m²/ d, with a settled volume of particles of 1000-1500 mL m²/ d. This implies that 25-43% of the 100 m POC export sank below 750 m. The sinking particles were ungrazed diatom aggregates that contained transparent exopolymer particles (TEP). We conclude that diatom blooms can lead to substantial particle export that is transferred efficiently through the mesopelagic. We also present an improved method of calibrating the Alcian Blue solution against Gum Xanthan for TEP measurements.

The sea surface temperature in the Pacific equatorial cold tongue is influenced strongly by the turbulent entrainment flux. A numerical model using a level-1.5 turbulence closure scheme suggests strong modulation of the entrainment flux by tropical instability waves (TIWs). Turbulence observations taken by a Lagrangian float encountering a TIW confirm the spatial pattern of turbulent flux variation predicted by the model.

The strongest observed turbulence mixing occurred at the leading edge of the TIW trough; turbulence diffusivity K – 10^-2 m² s^-1 and turbulent heat flux Q – 1000 W m^-2 at the base of surface mixed layer. The weakest observed turbulence occurred at –2° south of the TIW trough; K – 10^-4 m² s^-1 and Q – 10 W m^-2. The TIW caused nearly two decades of turbulence variation within an O(1000 km) zonal scale and O(100 km) meridional scale. Model results suggest that the increased entrainment heat flux at the leading edge of the TIW trough can be explained by the enhancement of shear at the surface mixed layer base modulated by the TIWs.

Although isopycnal mixing is undoubtedly important at global and gyre scales, the relative importance of isopycnal and diapycnal mixing on much smaller scales is uncertain. This issue is investigated using 35 d of data from a Lagrangian float deployed on a mid-depth isopycnal on the Oregon shelf. Measurements of temperature, salinity, and pressure maintain the float on the isopycnal; its high-frequency diapycnal deviations are used to estimate the diapycnal diffusivity using an inertial subrange method; lower-frequency deviations, including intentional profiles to the surface, are used to estimate diapycnal derivatives near the target isopycnal. Downward irradiance at 490 nm is used to calibrate chlorophyll fluorescence measurements and compute solar heating rates. Corrections for the diapycnal deviations provide a nearly continuous isopycnal time series of spice (a temperature and salinity combination nearly orthogonal to potential density) and chlorophyll.

A new formulation of the diffusion equation in isopycnal coordinates is derived and used to test the accuracy of purely diapycnal mixing balances for spice and chlorophyll. On vertical scales of about 10 m and timescales of about 2 d, isopycnal spice variations are mostly controlled by diapycnal mixing, although other processes, presumably isopycnal mixing, are sometimes important. Processes other than diapycnal mixing control isopycnal chlorophyll variations on these scales. Likely candidates include isopycnal mixing with a nearby bloom, planktonic sinking out of this bloom, or possibly local phytoplankton growth. Thus both isopycnal and diapycnal mixing can be important at these small scales.

Measurements of the air–sea fluxes of N₂ and O<sub>2 were made in winds of 15–57 m s^-1 beneath Hurricane Frances using two types of air-deployed neutrally buoyant and profiling underwater floats. Two "Lagrangian floats" measured O2 and total gas tension (GT) in pre-storm and post-storm profiles and in the actively turbulent mixed layer during the storm. A single "EM-APEX float" profiled continuously from 30 to 200 m before, during and after the storm. All floats measured temperature and salinity. N2 concentrations were computed from GT and O2 after correcting for instrumental effects. Gas fluxes were computed by three methods. First, a one-dimensional mixed layer budget diagnosed the changes in mixed layer concentrations given the pre-storm profile and a time varying mixed layer depth. This model was calibrated using temperature and salinity data. The difference between the predicted mixed layer concentrations of O2 and N2 and those measured was attributed to air–sea gas fluxes FBO and FBN. Second, the covariance flux FCO(z) = < w>O2%u2032%u3009(z) was computed, where w is the vertical motion of the water-following Lagrangian floats, O2' is a high-pass filtered O2 concentration and <>(z) is an average over covariance pairs as a function of depth. The profile FCO(z) was extrapolated to the surface to yield the surface O2 flux FCO(0). Third, a deficit of O2 was found in the upper few meters of the ocean at the height of the storm. A flux FSO, moving O2 out of the ocean, was calculated by dividing this deficit by the residence time of the water in this layer, inferred from the Lagrangian floats. The three methods gave generally consistent results. At the highest winds, gas transfer is dominated by bubbles created by surface wave breaking, injected into the ocean by large-scale turbulent eddies and dissolving near 10-m depth. This conclusion is supported by observations of fluxes into the ocean despite its supersaturation; by the molar flux ratio FBO/FBN, which is closer to that of air rather than that appropriate for Schmidt number scaling; by O2 increases at about 10-m depth along the water trajectories accompanied by a reduction in void fraction as measured by conductivity; and from the profile of FCO(z), which peaks near 10 m instead of at the surface.

At the highest winds O2 and N2 are injected into the ocean by bubbles dissolving at depth. This, plus entrainment of gas-rich water from below, supersaturates the mixed layer causing gas to flux out of the near-surface ocean. A net influx of gas results from the balance of these two competing processes. At lower speeds, the total gas fluxes, FBO, FBN and FCO(0), are out of the ocean and downgradient.</sub>

Observations of vertical velocities in deep wintertime mixed layers using neutrally buoyant floats show that the convectively driven vertical velocities, roughly 1000 m per day, greatly exceed the sinking velocities of phytoplankton, 10 m or less per day. These velocities mix plankton effectively and uniformly across the convective layer and are therefore capable of returning those that have sunk to depth back into the euphotic zone. This mechanism cycles cells through the surface layer during the winter and provides a seed population for the spring bloom. A simple model of this mechanism applied to immortal phytoplankton in the subpolar Labrador Sea predicts that the seed population in early spring will be a few percent of the fall concentration if the plankton sink more slowly than the mean rate at which the surface well-mixed layer grows over the winter. Plankton that sink faster than this will mostly sink into the abyss with only a minute fraction remaining by spring. The shallower mixed layers of mid-latitudes are predicted to be much less effective at maintaining a seed population over the winter, limiting the ability of rapidly sinking cells to survive the winter.

An array of instruments air-deployed ahead of Hurricane Frances measured the three-dimensional, time dependent response of the ocean to this strong (60 m s^-1) storm. Sea surface temperature cooled by up to 2.2°C with the greatest cooling occurring in a 50-km-wide band centered 60–85 km to the right of the track. The cooling was almost entirely due to vertical mixing, not air-sea heat fluxes. Currents of up to 1.6 m s^-1 and thermocline displacements of up to 50 m dispersed as near-inertial internal waves. The heat in excess of 26°C, decreased behind the storm due primarily to horizontal advection of heat away from the storm track, with a small contribution from mixing across the 26°C isotherm. SST cooling under the storm core (0.4°C) produced a 16% decrease in air-sea heat flux implying an approximately 5 m s^-1 reduction in peak winds

Measurements of vertical velocity by isopycnal-following, neutrally buoyant floats deployed on the Oregon shelf during the summers of 2000 and 2001 were used to characterize internal gravity waves on the shelf using measurements of vertical velocity. The average spectrum of Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB)-scaled vertical kinetic energy has the level predicted by the Garrett–Munk model (GM79), plus a narrow M₂ tidal peak and a broad high-frequency peak extending from about 0.1N to N and rising a decade above GM79. The high-frequency peak varies in energy coherently with time across its entire bandwidth. Its energy is independent of the tidal energy. The energy in the "continuum" region between the peaks is weakly correlated with the level of the high-frequency peak energy and is independent of the tidal peak energy. The vertical velocity is not Gaussian but is highly intermittent, with a calculated kurtosis of 19. The vertical kinetic energy varies geographically. Low energy is found offshore and nearshore. The highest energy is found near a small seamount. High energy is found over the rough topography of Heceta Bank and near the shelf break. The highest energy occurs as packets of high-frequency waves, often occurring on the sharp downward phase of the M₂ internal tide and called "tidal solibores."

A few isolated waves with high energy are also found. Of the 1-h periods with the highest vertical kinetic energy, 31% are tidal solibores, 8% are isolated waves, and the remainder of the periods appear unorganized. The two most energetic tidal solibores were examined in detail. As compared with the steady, propagating, two-dimensional, inviscid, internal-wave solutions to the equations of motion with no background shear [i.e., the Dubreil–Jacotin–Long (DJL) equation], all but the most energetic observed waveforms are too narrow for their height to be solitary waves. Despite the large near-N peak in vertical kinetic energy, the M₂ internal tide contributes over 80% of the energy, ignoring near-inertial waves. The tidal solibores make a very small contribution, 0.5%, to the overall internal-wave energy.

Advances in low-power instrumentation and communications now often make energy storage the limiting factor for long-term autonomous oceanographic measurements. Recent advances in photovoltaic cells, with efficiencies now close to 30%, make solar power potentially viable even for vehicles such as floats that only surface intermittently. A simple application, the development of a solar-powered Argos recovery beacon, is described here to illustrate the technology. The 65-cm² solar array, submersible to at least 750 dbar, powers an Argos beacon. Tests indicate that with minor improvements the beacon will run indefinitely at any latitude equatorward of about 50°. Scaling up this design to current operational profiling floats, each profile could easily be powered by a few hours of solar charging, a shorter time than is currently being used for Argos data communications.

Air–sea flux measurements of O₂ and N₂ obtained during Hurricane Frances in September 2004 using air-deployed neutrally buoyant floats reveal the first evidence of a new regime of air–sea gas transfer occurring at wind speeds in excess of 35 m s^-1. In this regime, plumes of bubbles 1 mm and smaller in size are transported down from near the surface of the ocean to greater depths by vertical turbulent currents with speeds up to 20–30 cm s^-1. These bubble plumes mostly dissolve before reaching a depth of approximately 20 m as a result of hydrostatic compression. Injection of air into the ocean by this mechanism results in the invasion of gases in proportion to their tropospheric molar gas ratios, and further supersaturation of less soluble gases. A new formulation for air–sea fluxes of weakly soluble gases as a function of wind speed is proposed to extend existing formulations to span the entire natural range of wind speeds over the open ocean, which includes hurricanes.

The new formulation has separate contributions to air–sea gas flux from: 1) non-supersaturating near-surface equilibration processes, which include direct transfer associated with the air–sea interface and ventilation associated with surface wave breaking; 2) partial dissolution of bubbles smaller than 1 mm that mix into the ocean via turbulence; and 3) complete dissolution of bubbles of up to 1 mm in size via subduction of bubble plumes. The model can be simplified by combining "surface equilibration" terms that allow exchange of gases into and out of the ocean, and "gas injection" terms that only allow gas to enter the ocean. The model was tested against the Hurricane Frances data set. Although all the model parameters cannot be determined uniquely, some features are clear. The fluxes due to the surface equilibration terms, estimated both from data and from model inversions, increase rapidly at high wind speed but are still far below those predicted using the cubic parameterization of Wanninkhof and McGillis at high wind speed. The fluxes due to gas injection terms increase with wind speed even more rapidly, causing bubble injection to dominate at the highest wind speeds.

The Coupled Boundary Layer Air–Sea Transfer (CBLAST) field program, conducted from 2002 to 2004, has provided a wealth of new air–sea interaction observations in hurricanes. The wind speed range for which turbulent momentum and moisture exchange coefficients have been derived based upon direct flux measurements has been extended by 30% and 60%, respectively, from airborne observations in Hurricanes Fabian and Isabel in 2003. The drag coefficient (CD) values derived from CBLAST momentum flux measurements show CD becoming invariant with wind speed near a 23 m s^-1 threshold rather than a hurricane-force threshold near 33 m s^-1. Values above 23 m s^-1 are lower than previous open-ocean measurements.

The Dalton number estimates (CE) derived from CBLAST moisture flux measurements are shown to be invariant with wind speeds up to 30 m s^-1, which is in approximate agreement with previous measurements at lower winds. These observations imply a CE/CD ratio of approximately 0.7, suggesting that additional energy sources are necessary for hurricanes to achieve their maximum potential intensity. One such additional mechanism for augmented moisture flux in the boundary layer might be "roll vortex" or linear coherent features, observed by CBLAST 2002 measurements to have wavelengths of 0.9–1.2 km. Linear features of the same wavelength range were observed in nearly concurrent RADARSAT Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery.

As a complement to the aircraft measurement program, arrays of drifting buoys and subsurface floats were successfully deployed ahead of Hurricanes Fabian (2003) and Frances (2004) [16 (6) and 38 (14) drifters (floats), respectively, in the two storms]. An unprecedented set of observations was obtained, providing a four-dimensional view of the ocean response to a hurricane for the first time ever. Two types of surface drifters and three types of floats provided observations of surface and sub-surface oceanic currents, temperature, salinity, gas exchange, bubble concentrations, and surface wave spectra to a depth of 200 m on a continuous basis before, during, and after storm passage, as well as surface atmospheric observations of wind speed (via acoustic hydrophone) and direction, rain rate, and pressure. Float observations in Frances (2004) indicated a deepening of the mixed layer from 40 to 120 m in approximately 8 h, with a corresponding decrease in SST in the right-rear quadrant of 3.2°C in 11 h, roughly one-third of an inertial period. Strong inertial currents with a peak amplitude of 1.5 m s^-1 were observed. Vertical structure showed that the critical Richardson number was reached sporadically during the mixed-layer deepening event, suggesting shear-induced mixing as a prominent mechanism during storm passage. Peak significant waves of 11 m were observed from the floats to complement the aircraft-measured directional wave spectra.

The development and testing of a new, fast response, profiling gas tension device (GTD) that measures total dissolved air pressure is presented. The new GTD equilibrates a sample volume of air using a newly developed (patent pending) tubular silicone polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane interface. The membrane interface is long, flexible, tubular, and is contained within a seawater-flushed hose. The membrane interface communicates pressure to a precise pressure gauge using low dead-volume stainless steel tubing. The pressure sensor and associated electronics are located remotely from the membrane interface. The new GTD has an operating depth in seawater of 0–300 m. The sensor was integrated onto an upper-ocean mixed layer, neutrally buoyant float, and used in air–sea gas exchange studies. Results of laboratory and pressure tank tests are presented to show response characteristics of the device. A significant hydrostatic response of the instrument was observed over the depth range of 0–9 m, and explained in terms of expulsion (or absorption) of dissolved air from the membrane after it is compressed (or decompressed). This undesirable feature of the device is unavoidable since a large exposed surface area of membrane is required to provide a rapid response. The minimum isothermal response time varies from (2 ± 1) min near the sea surface to (8 ± 2) min at 60-m depth. Results of field tests, performed in Puget Sound, Washington, during the summer of 2004, are reported, and include preliminary comparisons with mass-spectrometric analysis of in situ water samples analyzed for dissolved N₂ and Ar. These tests served as preparations for deployment of two floats by aircraft into the advancing path of Hurricane Frances during September 2004 in the northwest Atlantic. The sensors performed remarkably well in the field. A model of the dynamical response of the GTD to changing hydrostatic pressure that accounts for membrane compressibility effects is presented. The model is used to correct the transient response of the GTD to enable a more precise measurement of gas tension when the float was profiling in the upper-ocean mixed layer beneath the hurricane.

This study tests the ability of a neutrally buoyant float to estimate the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy ε from its vertical acceleration spectrum using an inertial subrange method. A Lagrangian float was equipped with a SonTek acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), which measured the vector velocity 1 m below the float's center, and a pressure sensor, which measured the float's depth. Measurements were taken in flows where estimates of ε varied from 10^-8 to 10^-3 W kg^-1. Previous observational and theoretical studies conclude that the Lagrangian acceleration spectrum is white within the inertial subrange with a level proportional to ε. The size of the Lagrangian float introduces a highly reproducible spectral attenuation at high frequencies. Estimates of the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy using float measurements ε_float were obtained by fitting the observed spectra to a model spectrum that included the attenuation effect. The ADV velocity measurements were converted to a wavenumber spectrum using a variant of Taylor's hypothesis. The spectrum exhibited the expected –5/3 slope within an inertial subrange. The turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate ε_ADV was computed from the level of this spectrum. These two independent estimates, ε_ADV and ε_float, were highly correlated. The ratio ε_float/ε_ADV deviated from one by less than a factor of 2 over the five decades of ε measured. This analysis confirms that ε can be estimated reliably from Lagrangian float acceleration spectra in turbulent flows. For the meter-sized floats used here, the size of the float and the noise level of the pressure measurements sets a lower limit of ε_float > 10^-8 W kg^-1.

The temperature of the sea surface beneath the hurricane inner core is a key factor controlling the flux of enthalpy from the ocean to the hurricane and thus an important influence on hurricane intensification. Mixing caused by the hurricane winds produces a rapid cooling of the sea surface as cooler water is mixed upward from below. This produces a front in sea surface temperature beneath the storm. The position of this front relative to the eye should thus be related to SST-induced storm intensification. Data from the CBLAST measurements in hurricanes is used to map several examples of this front. The sensitivity of its position to storm properties is explored using simple models of ocean mixing.

We analyze three sets of ADCP measurements taken on the Dongsha plateau, on the shallow continental shelf, and on the steep continental slope in the northern South China Sea (SCS). The data show strong divergences of energy and energy flux of nonlinear internal waves (NLIW) along and across waves' prevailing westward propagation path. The NLIW energy flux is 8.5 kW m^-1 on the plateau, only 0.25 kW m^-1 on the continental shelf 220 km westward along the propagation path, and only 1 kW m^-1 on the continental slope 120 km northward across the propagation path. Along the wave path on the plateau, the average energy flux divergence of NLIW is ~0.04 W m^-2, which corresponds to a dissipation rate of O(10^-7 – 10^-6) W kg^-1. Combining the present with previous observations and model results, a scenario of NLIW energy flux in the SCS emerges. NLIWs are generated east of the plateau, propagate predominantly westward across the plateau along a beam of ~100 km width that is centered at ~21°N, and dissipate nearly all their energy before reaching the continental shelf.

Observations of the three-dimensional structure and evolution of a thermohaline intrusion in a wide, deep fjord are presented. In an intensive two-ship study centered on an acoustically tracked neutrally buoyant float, a cold, fresh, low-oxygen tongue of water moving southward at about 0.03 m s^-1 out of Possession Sound, Washington, was observed. The feature lay across isopycnal surfaces in a 50–80-m depth range. The large-scale structures of temperature, salinity, velocity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll were mapped with a towed, depth-cycling instrument from one ship while the other ship measured turbulence close to the float with loosely tethered microstructure profilers. Observations from both ships were expressed in a float-relative (Lagrangian) reference frame, minimizing advection effects. A float deployed at the tongue's leading edge warmed 0.2°C in 24 h, which the authors argue resulted from mixing. Diapycnal heat fluxes inferred from microstructure were 1–2 orders of magnitude too small to account for the observed warming. Instead, lateral stirring along isopycnals appears responsible, implying isopycnal diffusivities O(1 m² s^-1). These are consistent with estimates, using measured temperature microstructure, from an extension of the Osborn–Cox model that allows for lateral gradients. Horizontal structures with scales O(100 m) are seen in time series and spatial maps, supporting this interpretation.

Four sets of ADCP measurements were taken in the South China Sea (SCS); these results were combined with previous satellite observations and internal-tide numerical model results. Analysis suggests that strong internal tides are generated in Luzon Strait, propagate as a narrow tidal beam into the SCS, are amplified by the shoaling continental slope near TungSha Island, become nonlinear, and evolve into high-frequency nonlinear internal waves (NIW). Internal waves in the SCS have geographically distinct characteristics. (1) West of Luzon Strait the total internal wave energy (E_iw ) is 10 x that predicted by Garrett-Munk spectra (E_GM) (Levine, 2002). There is no sign of NIW. (2) Near TungSha Island E_iw = 13 x E_GM. Strong nonlinear and high-harmonic tides are present. Repetitive trains of large-amplitude NIW appear primarily at a semidiurnal periodicity with their amplitudes modulated at a fortnightly tidal cycle. The rms vertical velocity of NIW shows a clear spring-neap tidal cycle and is linearly proportional to the barotropic tidal height in Luzon Strait with a 1.85-day time lag, consistent with the travel time of internal tides from Luzon Strait to TungSha Island. (3) At the northern SCS shelfbreak E_iw = 4 x E_GM. Single depression waves are found, but no multiple-waves packets are evident. (4) On the continental shelf E_iw = 2 x E_GM . Both depression and elevation NIW exist.

We performed a series of laboratory experiments on the interactions between turbulent wave boundary layers and a predominantly silt-sized sediment bed. Under a wide range of wave conditions similar to those observed on storm-dominated midshelf environments we produced quasi-steady high-density benthic suspensions. These suspensions were turbulent, while containing large near-bed concentrations of suspended sediment (17–80 g/L), and were separated from the upper water column by a lutocline. Detailed measurements of the vertical structure of velocity, turbulence, and sediment concentration revealed that the wave boundary layer, while typically >1 cm thick in sediment-free conditions, was reduced substantially in size, often to <3 mm, with the addition of suspendible sediment. This likely resulted from sediment-induced stratification that limited vertical mixing of momentum. Despite boundary layer reduction the flows were able to support high-density suspensions as thick as 8 cm because turbulent energy was transported upward from this thin but highly energetic near-bed region. Standard formulations of the Richardson number for shear flows are not applicable to our experiments since the suspensions were supported from transported rather than locally produced turbulence.

Neutrally buoyant, isopycnal-following floats were deployed on the Oregon continental shelf during the upwelling seasons of 2000 and 2001 and were carried southward by the mean current. The floats made CTD profiles and obtained GPS fixes twice daily, thus providing a hydrographic section along a known track. The floats followed the water accurately while at depth, but were displaced from the trajectories of the deep water during semidiurnal surfacings. These effects were large for water depths shallower than 100 m, but small on the rest of the shelf. Float trajectories, corrected for advection while on the surface, showed significant error when near the shore, but little net effect offshore. Some floats moved onshore and upward along the sloping isopycnals as expected during upwelling. Although the position of the isopycnal could be predicted accurately from the wind, the motion along the isopycnal showed significant fluctuations unrelated to the wind. These may be due to barotropic shelf waves. Some floats moved southward, roughly following the isobaths around Heceta Bank to Cape Blanco. Here they underwent large vertical and cross-shelf excursions and eventually moved offshore. Two floats passed through this region 25 days apart following different trajectories, indicating an unsteady flow. Overall, these data show the expected mix of a classical upwelling circulation in the north, an offshore jet with eddies in the south, and a strong influence of topography on both the mean flow and its fluctuations.

The ability of neutrally buoyant, high-drag floats to measure the air–sea heat flux from within the turbulent oceanic boundary layer is investigated using float data from four different winter and fall float deployments. Two flux estimates can be made: Q_0A measures the vertical advection of heat, and Q_0D integrates the Lagrangian heating rate. Because the floats are only imperfectly Lagrangian, a key issue is diagnosing the ability of a given set of float data to make accurate flux measurements. A variety of diagnostics are explored and evaluated. Here Q_0A and Q_0D are compared to heat flux measurements computed using bulk formulas and shipboard measurements for one 2-week cruise. Quality controlled float-based fluxes agree with bulk fluxes to within 10 W m^-2 for both positive and negative values. The differences are well within the expected statistical errors in the float measurements and the bias errors of the bulk measurements.

The Lagrangian properties of a high-resolution, three-dimensional, direct numerical simulation of Kelvin–Helmholtz (K–H) instability are examined with the goal of assessing the ability of Lagrangian measurements to determine rates and properties of ocean mixing events. The size and rotation rates of the two-dimensional K–H vortices are easily determined even by individual trajectories. Changes in density along individual trajectories unambiguously show diapycnal mixing. These changes are highly structured during the early phases of the instability but become more random once the flow becomes turbulent. Only 36 particles were tracked, which is not enough to usefully estimate volume-averaged fluxes from the average rates of temperature change. Similarly, time- and volume-averaged vertical advective flux can be estimated to only 20% accuracy. Despite the relatively low Reynolds number of the flow, the dissipation rates of energy and density variance are correlated with the spectral levels of transverse velocity and density in an inertial subrange, as expected for high-Reynolds-number turbulence. The Kolmogorov constants are consistent with previous studies. This suggests that these inertial dissipation methods are the most promising techniques for making useful measurements of diapycnal mixing rates from practical Lagrangian floats because they converge rapidly and have a clear theoretical basis.

Intensive data collection in the region of the Labrador Sea northwest of former Ocean Weather Station Bravo during the winter of 1998 allowed examination of the meso- and submesoscale structure during active convection. Data used include shipboard CTDs, shipboard underway data, isobaric CTD profiling floats, and high-drag floats whose trajectories were approximately Lagrangian in the horizontal and vertical directions. On the mesoscale, O(20 km), horizontal variability was nearly 1°C and 0.1 psu. An anticyclonic eddy of 40-km diameter was found. On a smaller scale, O(5 km), variability of 0.04 psu and 0.3°C was found. By utilizing data from fully Lagrangian floats, this smaller-scale field was found to be organized into eddies of 1–12-km radius. Both cyclonic and anticyclonic features were found, with the anticyclones being larger. This observation may explain the excess of anticyclones reported in previous studies having lower spatial resolution. These features were unsteady, with an anticyclone doubling in size in less than a week. There was communication between eddies, with four of five floats escaping an anticyclone. This exchange produced horizontal diffusivities (250–350 m² s^-1) on the order of basin-scale values, implying these small-scale features could produce the majority of the stirring. The influence of these structures on convection was explored: convection occurred throughout the region sampled despite the presence of eddies, the deepest mixed layers were found within an anticyclone, and convective trajectories within small cyclones were found to be significantly tilted so as to avoid the surface centers of the cyclones.

This work describes several techniques to process data collected in the central Labrador Sea during the winters of 1997 and 1998 as part of the Labrador Sea Deep Convection Experiment. Ship-based observations (CTD and intake logs) and float data (profiling isobaric floats and fully Lagrangian floats) are intercalibrated and used to estimate trends in mixed layer properties during the winter of 1998. RAFOS records are used to calculate the horizontal position of fully Lagrangian floats utilizing two methods.

This paper is an observational study of small-scale coherent eddies in the Labrador Sea, a region of dense water formation thought to be of considerable importance to the North Atlantic overturning circulation. Numerical studies of deep convection emphasize coherent eddies as a mechanism for the lateral transport of heat, yet their small size has hindered observational progress. A large part of this paper is therefore devoted to developing new methods for identifying and describing coherent eddies in two observational platforms, current meter moorings and satellite altimetry. Details of the current and water mass structure of individual eddy events, as they are swept past by an advecting flow, can then be extracted from the mooring data. A transition is seen during mid-1997, with long-lived boundary current eddies dominating the central Labrador Sea year-round after this time, and convectively formed eddies similar to those seen in deep convection modeling studies apparent prior to this time. The TOPEX / Poseidon altimeter covers the Labrador Sea with a loose "net" of observations, through which coherent eddies can seem to appear and disappear. By concentrating on locating and describing anomalous events in individual altimeter tracks, a portrait of the spatial and temporal variability of the underlying eddy field can be constructed. The altimeter results reveal an annual "pulsation" of energy and of coherent eddies originating during the late fall at a particular location in the boundary current, pinpointing the time and place of the boundary current-type eddy formation. The interannual variability seen at the mooring is reproduced, but the mooring site is found to be within a localized region of greatly enhanced eddy activity. Notably lacking in both the annual cycle and interannual variability is a clear relationship between the eddies or eddy energy and the intensity of wintertime cooling. These eddy observations, as well as hydrographic evidence, suggest an active role for boundary current dynamics in shaping the energetics and water mass properties of the interior region.

Between 1996 and 1998, a concerted effort was made to study the deep open ocean convection in the Labrador Sea. Both in situ observations and numerical models were employed with close collaboration between the researchers in the fields of physical oceanography, boundary layer meteorology, and climate. A multitude of different methods were used to observe the state of ocean and atmosphere and determine the exchange between them over the experiment's period. The Labrador Sea Deep Convection Experiment data collection aims to assemble the observational data sets in order to facilitate the exchange and collaboration between the various projects and new projects for an overall synthesis. A common file format and a browsable inventory have been used so as to simplify the access to the data.

A truly Lagrangian float would follow all three components of oceanic velocity on all timescales. Progress toward this goal is reviewed by analyzing the performance of nearly Lagrangian floats deployed in a variety of oceanic flows. Two new float types, described in this paper, are autonomous with durations of months, can alternate between Lagrangian and profiling modes, relay data via satellite, and can carry a variety of sensors. A novel hull design is light, strong, and has a compressibility close to that of seawater.

The key to making floats accurately Lagrangian is an improved understanding of the factors that control float buoyancy and motion. Several insights are presented here. Anodized aluminum gains weight in seawater due to reactions between its surface and seawater. At low pressure the buoyancy of floats with O-ring seals varies as if attached bubbles of air were being compressed. The volume of "air" decays exponentially with a decay scale of a few days from 10 to 30 cc at deployment to an asymptotic value that depends on pressure. The drag of floats moving slowly through a stratified ocean is dominated by internal wave generation and is thus linear, not quadratic. Internal wave drag acting on an isopycnal-seeking float will cause the float to be Lagrangian for frequencies greater than about N/30, where N is the buoyancy frequency.

These floats have proven most useful in measuring the turbulence in ocean boundary layers and other regions of strong turbulence where the ability of the floats to be Lagrangian on short timescales matches the short timescale of the processes and where the size of the turbulent eddies exceeds the size of the float. On longer timescales, the floats successfully operate as isopycnal followers. Because truly Lagrangian floats are highly sensitive to minor perturbations, extension of the frequency band over which the floats are Lagrangian will require careful control of float buoyancy and thus a detailed understanding of the float's equation of state.

Three neutrally buoyant floats were air deployed ahead of Hurricane Dennis on 28 August 1999. These floats were designed to accurately follow three-dimensional water trajectories and measure pressure (i.e., their own depth) and temperature. The hurricane eye passed between two of the floats; both measured the properties of the ocean boundary layer beneath sustained 30 m s^-1 winds. The floats repeatedly moved through a mixed layer 30–70 m deep at average vertical speeds of 0.03–0.06 m s^-1. The speed was roughly proportional to the friction velocity. Mixed layer temperature cooled about 2.8° and 0.75°C at the floats on the east and west sides of the northward-going storm, respectively. Much of the cooling occurred before the eye passage. The remaining terms in the horizontally averaged mixed layer heat budget, the vertical velocity—temperature covariance and the Lagrangian heating rate, were computed from the float data. Surface heat fluxes accounted for only a small part of the cooling. Most of the cooling was due to entrainment of colder water from below and, on the right-hand (east) side only, horizontal advection and mixing with colder water. The larger entrainment flux on this side of the hurricane was presumably due to the much larger inertial currents and shear. Although these floats can make detailed measurements of the heat transfer mechanisms in the ocean boundary layer under these severe conditions, accurate measurements of heat flux will require clusters of many floats to reduce the statistical error.

The inertial subrange Kolmogorov constant for the Lagrangian velocity structure function C₀ is related to the inertial subrange constant for the Lagrangian acceleration spectrum β by C₀ = πβ. However, R_λ must be greater than about 10⁵ for the inertial subrange of the structure function to be sufficiently wide to accurately determine C₀, while values of R_λ greater than 10² are sufficient to determine π. Taking these R_λ limitations into account, the only two known high-quality independent measurements of C₀ are 5.5 and 6.4.

In the shear stratified flow below the surface mixed layer in the central equatorial Pacific, energetic near-N (buoyancy frequency) internal waves and turbulence mixing were observed by the combination of a Lagrangian neutrally buoyant float and Eulerian mooring sensors. The turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate ε and the thermal variance diffusion rate χ were inferred from Lagrangian frequency spectral levels of vertical acceleration and thermal change rate, respectively, in the turbulence inertial subrange. Variables exhibiting a nighttime enhancement include the vertical velocity variance (dominated by near-N waves), ε, and χ. Observed high levels of turbulence mixing in this low-Ri (Richardson number) layer, the so-called deep-cycle layer, are consistent with previous microstructure measurements. The Lagrangian float encountered a shear instability event. Near-N waves grew exponentially with a 1-h timescale followed by enhanced turbulence kinetic energy and strong dissipation rate. The event supports the scenario that in the deep-cycle layer shear instability may induce growing internal waves that break into turbulence. Superimposed on few large shear-instability events were background westward-propagating near-N waves. The floats' ability to monitor turbulence mixing and internal waves was demonstrated by comparison with previous microstructure measurements and with Eulerian measurements.

We characterize and quantify the transport of heat (Boussinesq density) in a highly idealized entraining convective mixed layer based on simulations of Lagrangian measurements in a two-dimensional model. The primary objectives are to assess and explore the merits and difficulties in estimating the heat budget from perfect and imperfect Lagrangian floats. A significant advantage of Lagrangian measurements is that the time derivative of temperature along these trajectories gives a direct measure of the diffusive heat flux. Using simulated perfect Lagrangian floats, estimates of the surface buoyancy flux, the depth of the mixed layer, vertical profiles of advective and diffusive heat flux, and the overall rate of cooling are shown to agree accurately with the known results extracted from the Eulerian simulations. The Lagrangian nature of the data is exploited to reveal the structure of the flow within the convective layer and to quantify the heat fluxes associated with the different types of eddies.

Phase plots of Lagrangian trajectories in density-depth space reveal three distinct classes of motions: (1) plumes, which develop in the cold, heavy near-surface thermal boundary layer and plunge into the mixed layer interior carrying heavy water downward; (2) interior turbulence, comprising random motions between the base of the thermal boundary layer and the base of the surface mixed layer; and (3) entrainment of interior water into plumes below the thermal boundary layer, i.e., a transition from class 2 to class 1. Plumes dominate the heat transport. Simulations were also made using slightly buoyant floats; these are not perfectly Lagrangian. Buoyancy concentrates the floats near the surface resulting in an oversampling of the stronger plumes. Making the same heat budget calculations as with the perfect floats results in a nonzero estimated Lagrangian heating rate in the interior and a curved profile of vertical heat flux that is up to 3 times too large. The local time rate change of density is not significantly affected. A correction of the heat transport for oversampling of the plumes removes most of the error. This technique allows the correct heat budget to be measured for this flow using weakly buoyant floats.

During the winters of 1997 and 1998, a total of 24 Lagrangian floats were deployed in the Labrador Sea. These floats were designed to match the buoyancy and compressibility of seawater. They measured temperature and three-dimensional position (pressure for vertical position and RAFOS acoustic tracking for latitude and longitude) as they followed water motions three-dimensionally. This data provides direct observation of mixed layer depth and excellent estimates of vertical velocity. Floats were repeatedly carried across the convecting layer by vertical velocities averaging several centimeters per second with vertical excursions of up to one kilometer. In the horizontal, several scales of eddy motion were resolved, as was a possible float predilection toward remaining in water preconditioned for convection. Heat flux estimates from this data reveal entrainment and surface heat fluxes similar in magnitude. The mixed layer acts as a vertical conveyor belt of temperature, transporting heat from depth to the surface without requiring a net change in mixed layer temperature, since incorporation of salt from below allows an increase in density without a net change in temperature. Comparison with NCEP reanalysis meteorological heat flux and wind magnitude data shows that the vertical velocity variance can be modeled with 80% skill as a linear function of lagged buoyancy flux (with the atmosphere leading the ocean by ~1/2 day) without using the wind estimates. Mixed layer motions are clearly driven by the surface buoyancy flux, B_o. A nonrotating scaling of vertical velocity variance, (B_oH)^1/3, provides a marginally better fit than a rotating scaling, (B_o/f)^1/2. Horizontal effects appear to play only a weak role during strong convection but result in rapid restratification when convective forcing weakens.

Measurements of deep convection from fully Lagrangian floats deployed in the Labrador Sea during February and March 1997 are compared with results from model drifters embedded in a large eddy simulation (LES) of the rapidly deepening mixed layer. The deep Lagrangian floats (DLFs) have a large vertical drag, and are designed to nearly match the density and compressibility of seawater. The high-resolution numerical simulation of deep convective turbulence uses initial conditions and surface forcing obtained from in situ oceanic and atmospheric observations made by the R/V Knorr. The response of model floats to the resolved large eddy fields of buoyancy and velocity is simulated for floats that are 5 g too buoyant, as well as for floats that are correctly ballasted. Mean profiles of potential temperature, Lagrangian rates of heating and acceleration, vertical turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), vertical heat flux, potential temperature variance, and float probability distribution functions (PDFs) are compared for actual and model floats.

Horizontally homogeneous convection, as represented by the LES model, accounts for most of the first and second order statistics from float observations, except that observed temperature variance is several times larger than model variance. There are no correspondingly large differences in vertical TKE, heat flux, or mixed layer depth. The augmented temperature variance may be due to mixing across large-scale temperature and salinity gradients that are largely compensated in buoyancy. The rest of the DLF statistics agree well with the response of correctly ballasted model floats in the lowest 75% of the mixed layer, and are less consistent with results from buoyantly ballasted model floats.

Other differences between observation and simulation in the mean profiles of heat flux, vertical TKE, and Lagrangian heating and vertical acceleration rates are confined to the upper quarter of the mixed layer. These differences are small contributions to layer-averaged quantities, but represent statistically significant profile features. Larger observed values of heat flux and vertical TKE in the upper quarter of the mixed layer are more consistent with model floats ballasted light. Float buoyancy, however, cannot fully account for the observed PDFs, temperature profiles, and Lagrangian rates of heating and acceleration. A test of Lagrangian self-consistency comparing vertical TKE and Lagrangian acceleration also shows that DLF measurements are not significantly affected by excess float buoyancy. These upper mixed layer features may instead be due to the interaction of wind-driven currents and baroclinicity.

Current models of oil spills include no vertical physics. They neglect the effect of vertical water motions on the transport and concentration of floating oil. Some simple ways to introduce vertical physics are suggested here. The major suggestion is to routinely measure the density stratification of the upper ocean during oil spills in order to develop a database on the effect of stratification.

Mixing in a stratified ocean is controlled by different physics, depending on the large-scale Richardson number. At high Richardson numbers, mixing is controlled by interactions between internal wave modes. At Richardson numbers of order 1, mixing is controlled by instabilities of the large-scale wave modes. A "wave–turbulence (W–T) transition separates these two regimes. This paper investigates the W–T transition, using observed oceanic and atmospheric spectra and parameterizations. Viewed in terms of Lagrangian (intrinsic) frequency spectra, the transition occurs when the inertial subrange of turbulence, confined to frequencies greater than the buoyancy frequency N, reaches the level of the internal waves, confined to frequencies less than N. Viewed in terms of vertical wavenumber spectra, the W–T transition occurs when the bandwidth of internal waves becomes small. Both of these singularities occur when the typical internal wave velocity becomes comparable to the phase speed of the lowest internal wave mode. At energies below that of the W–T transition, the dissipation rate varies as the energy squared; above the transition the dependence is linear. The transition occurs at lower shear and dissipation rates where the phase speed of the lowest mode is smaller, that is, in shallower water for the same stratification. Traditional turbulence closure models, which ignore internal waves, can be accurate only at energies above the W–T transition.

Stratified flows are often a mixture of waves and turbulence. Here, Lagrangian frequency is used to distinguish these two types of motion.

A set of 52 Lagrangian float trajectories from Knight Inlet and 10 trajectories from below the mixed layer in the wintertime northeast Pacific were analyzed using frequency spectra. A subset of 28 trajectories transit the Knight Inlet sill where energetic internal waves and strong turbulent mixing coexist.

Vertical velocity spectra show a progression from a nearly Garrett–Munk internal wave spectrum at low energies to a shape characteristic of homogeneous turbulence at high energies. All spectra show a break in slope at a frequency close to the buoyancy frequency N. Spectra from the Knight Inlet sill are analyzed in more detail. For "subbuoyant" frequencies (less than N) all 28 spectra exhibit a ratio of vertical-to-horizontal kinetic energy that varies with frequency as predicted by the linear internal wave equations. All spectra have a shape similar to that of the Garrett–Munk internal wave spectrum at subbuoyant frequencies. These motions are much more like waves than turbulence. For "superbuoyant" frequencies (greater than N) all 28 spectra are isotropic and exhibit the –2 spectral slope of inertial subrange homogeneous turbulence. These motions appear to be turbulent.

These data suggest that stratified flows may be modeled as the sum of nearly isotropic turbulence with superbuoyant Lagrangian frequencies and anisotropic internal waves with subbuoyant Lagrangian frequencies. The horizontal velocities are larger than the vertical velocities for the internal wave component but approximately equal for the turbulent component. Vertical kinetic energy is therefore a better indicator of turbulent kinetic energy than is horizontal or total kinetic energy.