A global distributed observing program for shear, energy flux, and mixing by internal waves

PI: Girton, James (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Start Year: 2022 | Duration: 3 years
Partners: University of Washington, NOAA, Teledyne Webb Research

Abstract: Mixing rates in the ocean of the future will be determined to a large extent by the distribution of internal waves. Changes in the forcing of these waves by winds and tides, and modifications of the currents and density stratification that modulate internal wave propagation, evolution, and eventual dissipation into turbulence, are likely to be simulated with some skill by numerical coupled climate models. But the waves themselves and their impacts on the climate system through diffusive transport of heat, chemicals, and other tracers are a more difficult challenge. We propose a global sampling program for internal waves using profiling floats—measuring temperature, salinity, velocity, and turbulence—that will yield new insights into internal wave regimes and parameterizations, and that will provide direct and derived data products tailored for use by modeling groups for comparison and validation.