SGER: Differential Mixing by Breaking Internal Waves

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HebertA series of laboratory experiments will be conducted to assess whether turbulent mixing by breaking internal waves can produce different effective diffusivities for scalars with different molecular diffusivities (e.g., heat and salt). Thispossibility was first raised by Ann Gargett in 1988 based on scaling arguments, but has not yet been confirmed by observations. In order to test this hypothesis, fluxes of slat and other tracers will be measured in a stratified tank containing internal waves which are breaking intermittently and randomly. From these measurements effective diffusivities for a set of simple experiments will be calculated to establish if the hypothesis of differential mixing canbe substantiated. Small differences in the mixing coefficient of heat and salt could have a large effect on thedensity flux in the ocean.