Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-801-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-801-2018
Research article
 | 
22 Aug 2018
Research article |  | 22 Aug 2018

Turbulent length scales in a fast-flowing, weakly stratified, strait: Cook Strait, New Zealand

Craig L. Stevens

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Cited articles

Alford, M. H., MacKinnon, J. A., Nash, J. D., Simmons, H., Pickering, A., Klymak, J. M., Pinkel, R., Sun, O., Rainville, L., Musgrave, R., and Beitzel, T.: Energy flux and dissipation in Luzon Strait: Two tales of two ridges, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 41, 2211–2222, 2011. 
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Bluteau, C. E., Lueck, R. G., Ivey, G. N., Jones, N. L., Book, J. W., and Rice, A. E.: Determining mixing rates from concurrent temperature and velocity measurements, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 34, 2283–2293, 2017. 
Bowman, M. J., Kibblewhite, A. C., Chiswell, S. M., and Murtagh, R.: Shelf fronts and tidal stirring in Greater Cook Strait, New Zealand, Oceanol. Ac., 6, 119–129, 1983. 
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Short summary
Mixing in the ocean is highly variable and it is often difficult to measure the more energetic regions. Here we present the first full-depth turbulence profiles from Cook Strait, New Zealand. This 22 km wide channel between the major islands of New Zealand sustains very fast tidally driven flows. The measurements show that large vertical eddies exist, moving water up and down. This will affect stratification, as well as any biology, as it passes through the strait.