Evaluation of transport relative to the tidal mixing front on Southern Georges Bank

As part of Phase III of the U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank program, drogued drifters and dye tracer were released into the pycnocline on the southern flank of Georges Bank to measure advective and diffusive transport relative to the tidal mixing front in May 1999. Potential density measurements placed the tidal mixing front around the 50-55 m isobath on the southern flank. Drogued drifter movement relative to the front was on the order of the drifter's slip velocity and therefore did not support the existence of a mean, advective flow. No movement relative to the front of the dye patch center of mass also indicated a lack of advective flow. Diffusive transport did occur as the dye patch spread laterally both toward and away from the front much as would be predicted by the diffusion relationship of Okubo (1971), who summarized diffusion experiments in the surface ocean. The dye did not spread symmetrically, but was rather elongated along the isobaths. This can be attributed to vertical shear in the along-isobath current that was measured by the shipboard ADCP.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Katrein, Jody M. (Jody Marie), 1977-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James R. Ledwell.

• Ocean Engineering.
• /Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29048

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29048