TURBULENCE EXCHANGE THROUGH THE EQUATORIAL UNDERCURRENT CORE OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC

A transect of vertical profiles of currents, temperature, salinity den sity, and microstructure from 10 to 400 m was carried out every 15' of latitude from 2-degree-N to 2-degrees-S along longitude 176-degrees-W in October, 1990, during the 51st Cruise of the R/V Akademik Kurchato v. Towed microstructure measurements at 176-degrees-15'W from 1-degree s-40'S to 45'S at 170-185 m entered the undercurrent from the south, a nd show enhanced mixing activity exists at core depths, but with such extreme intermittency that the dominant core mixing events may be invi sible to vertical microstructure profilers. Nevertheless, evidence of core mixing was detected by the vertical microstructure profiler durin g the transect.