| Title | Flow and mixing near a glacier tongue: A pilot study |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2011 |
| Authors | Stevens, C.L., Stewart C.L., Robinson N.J., Williams M.J.M., and Haskell T.G. |
| Journal | Ocean Science |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 293 - 304 |
| Date Published | 2011 |
| ISSN | 18120784 (ISSN) |
| Keywords | Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, background level, Energy dissipation, flow velocity, glacier, hydrodynamics, Microstructure, Mixing, Richardson number, shear, velocity profile |
| Abstract | A glacier tongue floating in the coastal ocean presents a significant obstacle to the local flow and so influences oceanic mixing and transport processes. Here acoustic Doppler current profiler and shear microstructure observations very near to a glacier tongue side-wall capture flow accelerations and associated mixing. Flow speeds reached around 40 cm s-1, twice that of the ambient tidal flow amplitude, and generated vertical velocity shear squared as large as 10-5 s-2. During the time of maximum flow, turbulent energy dissipation rates reached 10-5 m2 s-3, around three decades greater than local background levels. This is in keeping with estimates of the gradient Richardson Number which dropped to ∼1 during maximum flow. Associated vertical diffusivities estimated from the shear microstructure results were substantial, reflecting the influence of the glacier on velocity gradients. © Author(s) 2011. |
| URL | http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79955948122&partnerID=40&md5=f4d897d18f07947c4d38540d84ea8de0 |
| DOI | 10.5194/os-7-293-2011 |
