Mixed Layer Turbulence Measurements during the ANZONE Winter Flux Experiment: ANZFLUX

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9316498 Stanton The proposed work is part of an integrated research program ("Anzflux") into the oceanographic structure of upper mixed layer of the eastern Weddell Sea. It is to be carried out from the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer in the austral winter of 1994. The work proposed here is the deployment of three instrument systems to measure momentum, heat, and salt fluxes from the pycnocline (a surface separating higher density deep water from lower density surface water) upward to the ocean-ice interface. In the surface layer these instrument systems will provide a hierarchy of direct flux and dissipation measurements which will identify several dynamically distinct layers: the surface constant stress layer, the turbulent boundary layer, and the active mixed layer. Continuous time series of these measurements will be made at each of the two fifteen day drift stations to observe both quiescent background conditions, and the response of the upper ocean to the short, severe, storm systems that are characteristic of the area. These measurements, in conjunction with other concurrent experiments to quantify the energy brought to the underside of the ice, will form the basis of a regional study of the processes responsible for the relatively thick upper mixed layer and thin ice cover. It is believed that these conditions are only marginally stable, and are maintained by a relatively high upward heat flux, which, if interrupted, could lead to deep vertical convection, and a significant change in the oceanic climate. ***