Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Its Dissipation Rate in the Equatorial Mixed Layer

Abstract

Abstract The authors apply a one-dimensional mixed layer model, based on second moment closure of turbulence, to study the characteristics of turbulence in the equatorial mixed layer. In particular, they focus on characteristics such as the TKE and the dissipation rate in the upper layers of the equatorial ocean, especially the phenomenon of deep episodic penetration well below the mixed layer of elevated dissipation rates commonly observed in microstructure measurements in the central tropical Pacific. Model simulations for the Tropic Heat experiments in 1984 and 1987 and Tropical Instability Wave Experiment in the central Pacific as well as the Tropical Oceans Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) Intensive Operating Period (IOP) observations in the western Pacific warm pool are performed. Modeled dissipation rates are found to be in reasonable agreement with those measured by microstructure profilers during these observations. Sensitivity studies are carried out to...