Measurements of the rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy, ?, over the ocean

Abstract

In a series of cruises during the last three years, the Naval Postgraduate School Environmental Physics Group has made more than 1000 shipboard measurements of the rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy, ɛ, using inertial subrange (high frequency) techniques. Utilizing the bulk-aerodynamic method to obtain the relevant Monin-Obukhov surface layer scaling parameters, the overwater dimensionless dissipation function 321-01, has been examined with unprecedented statistical certainty. The results agree well with those of Wyngaard and Cote (1971) for the stable case but they agree more closely with the parameterization of McBean and Elliott (1975) for unstable conditions. Drag coefficients computed from the ɛ data are in good agreement with the curve given by Garratt (1977).