Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-555-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-555-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Technical note: Spectral slopes in a deep, weakly stratified ocean and coupling between sub-mesoscale motion and small-scale mechanisms
Hans van Haren
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, the Netherlands
Related authors
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603, 2024
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Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter in the deep-sea. The shape of marine topography influences most water turbulence via breaking internal waves at ‘critically’ sloping seafloors. In this paper, the concept of critical slopes is revisited from a global internal wave-turbulence viewpoint using seafloor topography- and moored temperature sensor data. Potential robustness of the seafloor-internal wave interaction is discussed.
Hans van Haren, Corina P. D. Brussaard, Loes J. A. Gerringa, Mathijs H. van Manen, Rob Middag, and Ruud Groenewegen
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Changes in ocean temperature may affect vertical density stratification, which may hamper turbulent exchange and thus nutrient availability for phytoplankton growth. To quantify varying physical conditions, we sampled the upper 500 m along 17 ± 5° W between [30, 63]° N in summer. South to north, temperature decreased with stratification while turbulence and nutrient fluxes remained constant, likely due to internal waves breaking and little affected by the physical process of global warming.
Hans van Haren
Biogeosciences, 15, 4387–4403, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4387-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4387-2018, 2018
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This paper presents high-resolution temperature observations and turbulence estimates from a hilly abyssal "plain" in Pacific nodule areas. Although turbulence levels are considerably lower than over steep topography, a bottom boundary layer, if existent, varies in height over scales far exceeding that of an Ekman layer. This variation is associated with internal wave motions affecting the near-bottom turbulence and thus probably the associated sediment reworking.
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603, 2024
Short summary
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Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter in the deep-sea. The shape of marine topography influences most water turbulence via breaking internal waves at ‘critically’ sloping seafloors. In this paper, the concept of critical slopes is revisited from a global internal wave-turbulence viewpoint using seafloor topography- and moored temperature sensor data. Potential robustness of the seafloor-internal wave interaction is discussed.
Hans van Haren, Corina P. D. Brussaard, Loes J. A. Gerringa, Mathijs H. van Manen, Rob Middag, and Ruud Groenewegen
Ocean Sci., 17, 301–318, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-301-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-301-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in ocean temperature may affect vertical density stratification, which may hamper turbulent exchange and thus nutrient availability for phytoplankton growth. To quantify varying physical conditions, we sampled the upper 500 m along 17 ± 5° W between [30, 63]° N in summer. South to north, temperature decreased with stratification while turbulence and nutrient fluxes remained constant, likely due to internal waves breaking and little affected by the physical process of global warming.
Hans van Haren
Biogeosciences, 15, 4387–4403, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4387-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4387-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents high-resolution temperature observations and turbulence estimates from a hilly abyssal "plain" in Pacific nodule areas. Although turbulence levels are considerably lower than over steep topography, a bottom boundary layer, if existent, varies in height over scales far exceeding that of an Ekman layer. This variation is associated with internal wave motions affecting the near-bottom turbulence and thus probably the associated sediment reworking.
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The Weddell Sea Bottom Water gravity current transports dense water from the continental shelf to the deep sea and is crucial for the formation of new deep-sea water. Building on vertical profiles and time series measured in the northwestern Weddell Sea, we apply three methods to distinguish turbulence caused by internal waves from that by other sources. We find that in the upper part of the gravity current, internal waves are important for the mixing of less dense water down into the current.
Martin J. Austin, Christopher A. Unsworth, Katrien J. J. Van Landeghem, and Ben J. Lincoln
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Novel hydrodynamic observations 40 m from an offshore wind turbine monopile show that the turbulent tidal lee wake doubles the drag acting on the seabed, potentially enhancing sediment transport and impacting the seabed habitat and the organisms that utilise it. It also enhances the vertical mixing of the water column, which drives the transport of heat, nutrients and oxygen. As offshore wind farms rapidly expand into deeper waters, array-scale wakes may have significant ecological impacts.
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Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter in the deep-sea. The shape of marine topography influences most water turbulence via breaking internal waves at ‘critically’ sloping seafloors. In this paper, the concept of critical slopes is revisited from a global internal wave-turbulence viewpoint using seafloor topography- and moored temperature sensor data. Potential robustness of the seafloor-internal wave interaction is discussed.
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Current observations at two moorings in the northern South China Sea reveal that mesoscale eddies can transfer energy with near-inertial oscillations (NIOs). Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate important parameters affecting energy transfer between mesoscale eddies and NIOs, which demonstrate that the energy transferred by mesoscale eddies is larger with stronger winds and higher strength of the mesoscale eddy. Anticyclonic eddies can transfer more energy than cyclonic eddies.
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This paper describes results from an underwater robot (glider) deployment in the energetic waters of Te-Moana-o-Raukawa. The glider data showed how energy is transferred from winds and tides to turbulent processes. We found that boundary layers of strong turbulence typically can impact the water from surface to seafloor, except when pockets of fresher or warmer water move into the region. Numerical simulations showed that turbulent energy transport was crucial for boundary layers to interact.
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In the Western Alboran Gyre, waters from the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet, creating density differences that cause some water to sink, affecting ocean ventilation and nutrient cycles. We collected data showing patches of water with higher oxygen and chlorophyll levels moving towards the gyre's center, with active mixing at their edges. This mixing diluted the patches, and other factors like water density and light penetration likely played a role in these dynamics.
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We show observational data of highly increased mixing and vertical salt flux rates in a sparsely sampled region of the northern Baltic Sea. Co-located acoustic observations complement our in situ measurements and visualize turbulent mixing with high spatial resolution. The observed mixing is generally not resolved in numerical models of the area but likely impacts the exchange of water between the adjacent basins as well as nutrient and oxygen conditions in the Bothnian Sea.
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Short summary
Ocean circulations include small-scale processes like transport through sub-mesoscale eddies and turbulence by internal wave breaking. Knowledge is lacking on the interaction between the different processes. In deep, weakly stratified waters, continuous spectral slopes are observed that extend from sub-mesoscales across the internal wave band to the turbulence range. Such correspondence is suggested as being a potential feedback mechanism stabilizing large-scale ocean circulations.
Ocean circulations include small-scale processes like transport through sub-mesoscale eddies and...