Home | Meeting Announcement | Meeting Agenda | Call for Papers | Meeting Registration | Hotel Information | Travel Information | Attendees | Abstracts
2002 LAPCOD Meeting
Previous Abstract | Back to Abstracts Page | Next Abstract
On the Horizontal Wavenumber Spectrum of Density in the Near-Surface Layer of the Western Pacific Warm Pool
Alex Soloviev and Roger Lukas
NOVA Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center
soloviev@ocean.nova.edu(Abstract received 09/13/2002 for session B)
ABSTRACT
The near-surface temperature, salinity, and density fields in the western equatorial Pacific warm pool have a remarkable degree of spatial inhomogeneity. Convective rains produce surface "puddles" containing salinity and density anomalies. These puddles evolve due to interaction with their environment and with each other, producing a variety of spatial scales. This process can be described by a nonlinear advection-diffusion equation. The analysis of this equation allows us to hypothesize the existence of an equilibrium wavenumber range, in which the 1-D spectrum of horizontal density inhomogeneities is given by a formula, where k is the horizontal wavenumber, r is the near-surface water density, and c a dimensionless coefficient. For horizontal wavelengths less than 16 km, the thermosalinograph data from the R/V Le Noroit COARE sections from December 1992 through March 1993 demonstrate good agreement with the theoretical, "k-3" law. A similar "k-3" sub-range is also observed in both the temperature and salinity spectra. However, the salinity contribution to the horizontal density inhomogeneity exceeds the temperature contribution approximately by a factor of 2. The constraints imposed on the warm pool system by these statistical relationships may reduce the number of independent variables in the analysis of the coupled ocean-atmosphere warm pool system, which may be exploited to improve the simulation of the ENSO cycle.
Previous Abstract | Back to Abstracts Page | Next Abstract
2002 LAPCOD Meeting, Key Largo, Florida, December 12-16, 2000