The ONR sponsored Leads Experiment provided an opportunity to measure
timeseries of microstructure properties in the oceanic boundary layer
under freezing leads during field programs in the Arctic Ocean north
of Alaska in 1991 and 1992. Measurements were made for several days
at downcurrent sides of newly formed leads by deploying huts and
instrumentation within helicopter range of a central camp. At each
lead the automated Loose Tethered Microstructure Profiler (LMP)
continuously profiled the water column from the surface to 75m depth,
spanning the 35m deep mixed layer and upper pycnocline. The LMP is
equipped with a microscale shear probe, fast fp07 thermistor, and a
microconductivity cell, providing centimeter resolution estimates of salinity
and temperature structure while resolving the thermal and turbulent
kinetic energy gradient spectrum to produce estimates of thermal
dissipation rates, and kinetic energy dissipation rates. These
estimates have been successfully used with very high resolution
thermal gradients to estimate heat fluxes and thermal diffusivities
within both the mixed layer and pycnocline.
Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of
peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the the
views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.
Last Reviewed: February 2003
stanton@nps.edu
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McPhee, M. G. and T. P. Stanton, 1996. Turbulence in the Statically Unstable Oceanic Boundary Layer Under Arctic Leads. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 6409-6428.
Stanton, T. P. Upper ocean structure and turbulent mixing under Arctic leads. In prep.