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The tidally induced bottom boundary layer in a rotating frame: similarity of turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2008

KEI SAKAMOTO  and
KAZUNORI AKITOMO
KEI SAKAMOTO
Affiliation:
Oceanographic Research Department, Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan Center for Climate System Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
KAZUNORI AKITOMO
Affiliation:
Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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Abstract

To investigate turbulent properties of the tidally induced bottom boundary layer (TBBL) in a rotating frame, we performed three-dimensional numerical experiments under unstratified conditions, varying the temporal Rossby number Rot = |σ*/f*|, where σ* and f* are the tidal frequency and the Coriolis parameter, respectively. The vertical profiles of the time-averaged currents and stresses showed good similarity and coincided well with the turbulent Ekman layer, when they were normalized by the modified ‘outer’ scales, the frictional velocity u*τ, T* = 1/|f* + σ*| and δ* = u*τ/|f* + σ*| for the velocity, time and length scales (σ* is positive when the tidal ellipse rotates anticlockwise). This means that the similarity in turbulent statistics is universally applicable to the TBBL in the world's ocean except near the equator. Although strong inertial waves contaminated the perturbation field when Rot ~ 1 and masked the similarity, the apparent diffusivity κ*ap estimated by tracer experiments again showed similarity, since the inertial waves did not affect the mixing process in the present experiments. Thus, κ*ap can be represented in terms of the three external parameters: the latitude (f*), the tidal frequency (σ*) and the tidal amplitude (u*τ). The obtained scaling of u*τ δ* = u*τ2/|f*+σ*| for κ*ap suggests that effective mixing may occur when Rot ~ 1, i.e. near the critical latitude.

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Papers
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Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 615 , 25 November 2008 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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