Observations of near‐inertial waves in acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements made during the Mixed Layer Dynamics Experiment

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Abstract
Measurements of upper ocean shear made during the Mixed Layer Dynamics Experiment (MILDEX) provide evidence of large horizontal scale motion at near‐inertial frequency. The measurements consist of shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiles. Four large‐scale spatial surveys of 2–4 days duration were made by the R/V Wecoma as a set of boxes approximately 60 km per side around a drifting current meter buoy. Velocity time series from the drifting buoy and from sonar measurements made from FLIP also indicated the presence of motions at near‐inertial frequency. Horizontal length and time scales of the motion are estimated from the phase of the shear vector measured during the spatial surveys. Estimates of the length scale of the waves range from 500 to 1000 km, and the frequency is approximately 1.1f. The behavior of the phase is found to be consistent with a model of narrow‐band inertial waves with vertical structure such that there is a zero crossing in velocity at the base of the mixed layer (40–60 m).

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