Turbulence measurement from an autonomous underwater vehicle

Citation
Er. Levine et Rg. Lueck, Turbulence measurement from an autonomous underwater vehicle, J ATMOSP OC, 16(11), 1999, pp. 1533-1544
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Earth Sciences
Journal title
JOURNAL OF ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC TECHNOLOGY
ISSN journal
07390572 → ACNP
Volume
16
Issue
11
Year of publication
1999
Part
1
Pages
1533 - 1544
Database
ISI
SICI code
0739-0572(199911)16:11<1533:TMFAAU>2.0.ZU;2-D
Abstract
Horizontal profiles of the microstructure of velocity and temperature were obtained with a large autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) using two piezoel ectric shear probes, an FF07 thermistor, and three orthogonal accelerometer s mounted on a sting at the forward end of the vehicle. A winter field tria l in Narragansett Bay provided a run in the midwater pycnocline at 8-m dept h that contained a thermal front, an ascending profile to 3-m depth, and a run in the weakly stratified surface layer at this depth. Although shear sp ectra were strongly contaminated by narrowband vibrations produced by the m otor and actuators, this contamination was highly coherent with the measure d acceleration and was removed with standard signal processing techniques. The corrected spectra agreed well with the Nasmyth universal spectrum for w avenumbers up to 40 cpm. The estimated rate of dissipation of kinetic energ y varied from 0.8 to 250 X 10(-8) W kg(-1) and was consistent with the rate of production of turbulence by surface wind forcing and bottom stress.