1,721,200 research outputs found
Multiple strategies to produce lipophilic nanoparticles leaving water-soluble poly(HPMA)
No full textSolvent effect in PLA-PEG Based Nanoparticles Synthesis through Surfactant Free Polymerization
No full textEddy-Mixed Layer Interactions in the Ocean
No full textThe oceanic surface mixed layer is where communication takes place between the oceanic reservoir of heat, freshwater, and carbon dioxide, and the overlying atmosphere in which we live. The exchange of properties and their changes in time and space greatly influence not only the climate state, but also biological productivity, sea level, and ice coverage, to name a few. Thus, knowledge and accurate representation of the processes controlling the dynamics of the mixed layer are vital if we are to understand the coupled ocean-atmosphere system and develop a quantitative theory of it. This field is ripe for new investigation, as new observations are revealing the full complexity of the dynamical behavior of this region of the ocean.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (OCE02-4152)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (OCE03-36755
Interpreting Energy and Tracer Spectra of Upper-Ocean Turbulence in the Submesoscale Range (1–200 km)
No full textSubmesoscale (1–200 km) wavenumber spectra of kinetic and potential energy and tracer variance are obtained from in situ observations in the Gulf Stream region and in the eastern subtropical North Pacific. In the Gulf Stream region, steep kinetic energy spectra at scales between 200 and 20 km are consistent with predictions of interior quasigeostrophic–turbulence theory, both in the mixed layer and in the thermocline. At scales below 20 km, the spectra flatten out, consistent with a growing contribution of internal-wave energy at small scales. In the subtropical North Pacific, the energy spectra are flatter and inconsistent with predictions of interior quasigeostrophic–turbulence theory. The observed spectra and their dependence on depth are also inconsistent with predictions of surface quasigeostrophic–turbulence theory for the observed ocean stratification. It appears that unbalanced motions, most likely internal tides at large scales and the internal-wave continuum at small scales, dominate the energy spectrum throughout the submesoscale range. Spectra of temperature variance along density surfaces, which are not affected by internal tides, are also inconsistent with predictions of geostrophic-turbulence theories. Reasons for this inconsistency could be the injection of energy in the submesoscale range by small-scale baroclinic instabilities or modifications of the spectra by coupling between surface and interior dynamics or by ageostrophic frontal effects.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (OCE 1024198)United States. Office of Naval Research (N000140910458
Buoyancy and Wind-Driven Convection at Mixed Layer Density Fronts
No full textIn this study, the influence of a geostrophically balanced horizontal density gradient on turbulent convection in the ocean is examined using numerical simulations and a theoretical scaling analysis. Starting with uniform horizontal and vertical buoyancy gradients, convection is driven by imposing a heat loss or a destabilizing wind stress at the upper boundary, and a turbulent layer soon develops. For weak lateral fronts, turbulent convection results in a nearly homogeneous mixed layer (ML) whose depth grows in time. For strong fronts, a turbulent layer develops, but this layer is not an ML in the traditional sense because it is characterized by persistent horizontal and vertical gradients in density. The turbulent layer is, however, nearly homogeneous in potential vorticity (PV), with a value near zero. Using the PV budget, a scaling for the depth of the turbulent low PV layer and its time dependence is derived that compares well with numerical simulations. Two dynamical regimes are identified. In a convective layer near the surface, turbulence is generated by the buoyancy loss at the surface; below this layer, turbulence is generated by a symmetric instability of the lateral density gradient. This work extends classical scalings for the depth of turbulent boundary layers to account for the ubiquitous presence of lateral density gradients in the ocean. The new results indicate that a lateral density gradient, in addition to the surface forcing, can affect the stratification and the rate of growth of the surface boundary layer
The Vertical Structure of the Eddy Diffusivity and the Equilibration of the Extratropical Atmosphere
No full textObservations suggest that the time- and zonal-mean state of the extratropical atmosphere adjusts itself such that the so-called “criticality parameter” (which relates the vertical stratification to the horizontal temperature gradient) is close to one. T. Schneider has argued that the criticality parameter is kept near one by a constraint on the zonal momentum budget in primitive equations. The constraint relies on a diffusive closure for the eddy flux of potential vorticity (PV) with an eddy diffusivity that is approximately constant in the vertical.
The diffusive closure for the eddy PV flux, however, depends crucially on the definition of averages along isentropes that intersect the surface. It is argued that the definition favored by Schneider results in eddy PV fluxes whose physical interpretation is unclear and that do not satisfy the proposed closure in numerical simulations. An alternative definition, first proposed by T.-Y. Koh and R. A. Plumb, is preferred. A diffusive closure for the eddy PV flux under this definition is supported by analysis of the PV variance budget and can be used to close the near-surface zonal momentum budget in idealized numerical simulations. Following this approach, it is shown that O(1) criticalities are obtained if the eddy diffusivity decays from its surface value to about zero over the depth of the troposphere, which is likely to be the case in Earth’s atmosphere. Large criticality parameters, however, are possible if the eddy diffusivity decays only weakly in the vertical, consistent with results from quasigeostrophic models. This provides theoretical support for recent numerical studies that have found supercritical mean states in primitive equation models.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award OCE-0849233
Equilibration of an Atmosphere by Adiabatic Eddy Fluxes
No full textA major question for climate studies is to quantify the role of turbulent eddy fluxes in maintaining the observed atmospheric mean state. Both the equator-to-pole temperature gradient and the static stability of the extratropical atmosphere are set by a balance between these eddy fluxes and the radiative forcing. Much attention has been paid to the adjustment of the isentropic slope, which relates the static stability and the meridional temperature gradient. It is often argued that the extratropical atmosphere always equilibrates such that isentropes leaving the surface in the subtropics reach the tropopause near the poles. However, recent work challenged this argument. This paper revisits scaling arguments for the equilibrated mean state of a dry atmosphere, which results from a balance between the radiative forcing and the along-isentropic eddy heat flux. These arguments predict weak sensitivity of the isentropic slope to changes in the radiative forcing, consistent with previous results. Large changes can, however, be achieved if other external parameters, such as the size and rotation rate of the planet, are varied. The arguments are also extended to predict both the meridional temperature gradient and the static stability independently. This allows a full characterization of the atmospheric mean state as a function of external parameters.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award OCE-0849233
Abyssal Upwelling and Downwelling Driven by Near-Boundary Mixing
No full textA buoyancy and volume budget analysis of bottom-intensified mixing in the abyssal ocean reveals simple expressions for the strong upwelling in very thin continental boundary layers and the interior near-boundary downwelling in the stratified ocean interior. For a given amount of Antarctic Bottom Water that is upwelled through neutral density surfaces in the abyssal ocean (between 2000 and 5000 m), up to 5 times this volume flux is upwelled in narrow, turbulent, sloping bottom boundary layers, while up to 4 times the net upward volume transport of Bottom Water flows downward across isopycnals in the near-boundary stratified ocean interior. These ratios are a direct result of a buoyancy budget with respect to buoyancy surfaces, and these ratios are calculated from knowledge of the stratification in the abyss along with the assumed e-folding height that characterizes the decrease of the magnitude of the turbulent diapycnal buoyancy flux away from the seafloor. These strong diapycnal upward and downward volume transports are confined to a few hundred kilometers of the continental boundaries, with no appreciable diapycnal motion in the bulk of the interior ocean.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-1233832
Macroturbulent Equilibration in a Thermally Forced Primitive Equation System
No full textA major question for climate studies is to quantify the role of turbulent eddy fluxes in maintaining the observed ocean–atmosphere state. It has been argued that eddy fluxes keep the midlatitude atmosphere in a state that is marginally critical to baroclinic instability, which provides a powerful constraint on the response of the atmosphere to changes in external forcing. No comparable criterion appears to exist for the ocean. This is particularly surprising for the Southern Ocean, a region whose dynamics are very similar to the midlatitude atmosphere, but observations and numerical models suggest that the currents are supercritical.
This paper aims to resolve this apparent contradiction using a combination of theoretical considerations and eddy-resolving numerical simulations. It is shown that both marginally critical and supercritical mean states can be obtained in an idealized diabatically forced (and thus atmosphere-like) Boussinesq system, if the thermal expansion coefficient is varied from large atmosphere-like values to small oceanlike values. The argument is made that the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient dominantly controls the difference in the deformation scale between the two fluids and ultimately renders eddies ineffective in maintaining a marginally critical state in the limit of small thermal expansion coefficients.National Science Foundation (U.S.). (Award OCE-0849233
The Production and Dissipation of Compensated Thermohaline Variance by Mesoscale Stirring
No full textTemperature–salinity profiles from the region studied in the North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment (NATRE) show large isopycnal excursions at depths just below the thermocline. It is proposed here that these thermohaline filaments result from the mesoscale stirring of large-scale temperature and salinity gradients by geostrophic turbulence, resulting in a direct cascade of thermohaline variance to small scales. This hypothesis is investigated as follows: Measurements from NATRE are used to generate mean temperature, salinity, and shear profiles. The mean stratification and shear are used as the background state in a high-resolution horizontally homogeneous quasigeostrophic model. The mean state is baroclinically unstable, and the model produces a vigorous eddy field. Temperature and salinity are stirred laterally in each density layer by the geostrophic velocity and vertical advection is by the ageostrophic velocity. The simulated temperature–salinity diagram exhibits fluctuations at depths just below the thermocline of similar magnitude to those found in the NATRE data. It is shown that vertical diffusion is sufficient to absorb the laterally driven cascade of tracer variance through an amplification of filamentary slopes by small-scale shear. These results suggest that there is a strong coupling between vertical mixing and horizontal stirring in the ocean at scales below the deformation radius
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