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Dependence of seafloor boundary layer thickness on the overlying flow direction: a large eddy simulation study

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Abstract

Using large eddy simulation (LES) incorporating the effect of the horizontal component of the earth’s rotation vector, we studied the seafloor turbulent boundary layer to investigate the dependence of the boundary layer thickness on the overlying geostrophic flow orientation. The thickest boundary layer appears for the westward geostrophic flow: it is almost twice that of the eastward flow. The turbulent disturbances in the boundary layer are elongated slightly leftward relative to the geostrophic flow. Linear stability analysis for the Ekman’s spiral flow showed that the growth rate is maximum for the westward geostrophic flow and the unstable roll-like mode appears, which points slightly leftward relative to the geostrophic flow. These properties correspond to the feature near the bottom of the developed turbulent layer.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Drs. S. Raasch, Y. Noh and J.-H. Yoon for helping the use of PALM and valuable discussions. He also thanks for Drs. Y. Yoshikawa and T. Endo for helpful discussions. This work is supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (22340140).

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  1. Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, 6‐1 Kasuga Park, Kasuga, Fukuoka, 816‐8580, Japan

    Yoshinobu Wakata

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  1. Yoshinobu Wakata
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Correspondence to Yoshinobu Wakata.

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Wakata, Y. Dependence of seafloor boundary layer thickness on the overlying flow direction: a large eddy simulation study. J Oceanogr 67, 667–673 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-011-0068-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-011-0068-6

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