LONG-TERM GOALS

Our long-term goal is to understand how energy is supplied to the ocean, and how it subsequently cascades to the turbulence and mixing important to the circulation, and the transport and distribution of tracers. This problem involves scales spanning sub-inertial motions to turbulence, and therefore requires integrative efforts with other sea-going investigators and numerical modelers. The South China Sea project was an ideal opportunity to investigate the cascade from internal tides to higher frequency waves though the processes of internal wave scattering and non-linear steepening. OBJECTIVES To understand the modification of internal tides as they encounter the continental shelf. To understand how energy partitions between linear and non-linear internal waves in the internal tide generation region of the South China Sea To determine sites of high turbulence dissipation at the generation site. APPROACH To date, my approach for this project has been to use a numerical modeling to understand where turbulence dissipation will occur over supercrtical topography. These numerical models are two-dimensional iterations of the MITgcm, so relatively high resolution runs are attainable as are many iterations allowing the examination of significant parameter space. I have also strongly believe that numerical modeling must be informed by at-sea measurements, and vice-versa. To that end I have worked with Rob Pinkel and the rest of the IWISE pilot team to help plan the pilot experiment, and participated on Pinkel’s leg in June 2010