I produce realistic numerical simulations to investigate the ocean dynamics using the codes ROMS, WW3 and WRF.
By this mean, I explore submesoscale currents interacting with waves and Langmuir Turbulence.
By this mean, I explore submesoscale currents interacting with waves and Langmuir Turbulence.
Snapshots of surface normalized vorticity from a Middle California solution using ROMS at 30m horizontal resolution. Submesoscale currents favor cyclonic (in red) convergent motions and come as fronts and filaments (panel 1), or vortices (panel 2). On panel 3 is an example of a filament going through frontal instability.
Submesoscale dynamics
Submesoscale currents provide an energetic pathway from the mesoscale to the microscale, restratify the surface boundary layer, and affect the fate and trans- port of material in the surface ocean. These turbulent currents, O(0.1 − 1km) in horizontal scale, mainly reside in the surface boundary layer under the form of density fronts and filaments in both the coastal and the open ocean. It is believed that submesoscale ocean dynamics make important contributions to vertical exchange of climate and biological variables in the upper ocean. This hypothesis is presently being tested by the NASA mission Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE). |
Wave-current interaction
Surface gravity waves are known to interact with currents in at least two situations: in the surfzone where they break and can induce rip currents, and in the wind driven mixed layer where they engender Langmuir cells.
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Nearshore wave effects
We investigate the interactions between surface gravity waves and submesoscale currents on the shelf. In the nearshore, these submesoscale currents comprise fronts and filaments that form in the surface boundary layer, topographic wakes, surfzone vortices, fresh-water plumes and internal tidal bores that result from internal waves propagating up a sloping bottom.
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My main collaborators are James McWilliams (UCLA), Leonel Romero (UConn), Daniel Dauhajre (UCLA), Jeroen Molemaker (UCLA) and Kaushik Srinivasan (UCLA).
Header photo taken by Devin Dollery
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