Mazzini Piero L. F.

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Mazzini
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Piero L. F.
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  • Article
    The impact of wind forcing on the thermal wind shear of a river plume
    (American Geophysical Union, 2019-10-31) Mazzini, Piero L. F. ; Chant, Robert J. ; Scully, Malcolm E. ; Wilkin, John L. ; Hunter, Elias J. ; Nidzieko, Nicholas J.
    A 38-day long time series obtained using a combination of moored Wirewalkers equipped with conductivity-temperature-depth profilers and bottom-mounted and subsurface acoustic Doppler current profilers provided detailed high-resolution observations that resolved near-surface velocity and vertical and cross-shelf density gradients of the Chesapeake Bay plume far field. This unprecedented data set allowed for a detailed investigation of the impact of wind forcing on the thermal wind shear of a river plume. Our results showed that thermal wind balance was a valid approximation for the cross-shelf momentum balance over the entire water column during weak winds (|𝜏w 𝑦 | < 0.075 Pa), and it was also valid within the interior during moderate downwelling (−0.125< 𝜏w 𝑦 < −0.075 Pa). Stronger wind conditions, however, resulted in the breakdown of the thermal wind balance in the Chesapeake Bay plume, with thermal wind shear overestimating the observed shear during downwelling and underestimating during upwelling conditions. A momentum budget analysis suggests that viscous stresses from wind-generated turbulence are mainly responsible for the generation of ageostrophic shear.
  • Article
    Saildrone: adaptively sampling the marine environment
    (American Meteorological Society, 2020-06-01) Gentemann, Chelle L. ; Scott, Joel P. ; Mazzini, Piero L. F. ; Pianca, Cassia ; Akella, Santha ; Minnett, Peter J. ; Cornillon, Peter ; Fox-Kemper, Baylor ; Cetinić, Ivona ; Chin, T. Mike ; Gomez-Valdes, Jose ; Vazquez-Cuervo, Jorge ; Tsontos, Vardis ; Yu, Lisan ; Jenkins, Richard ; De Halleux, Sebastien ; Peacock, David ; Cohen, Nora
    From 11 April to 11 June 2018 a new type of ocean observing platform, the Saildrone surface vehicle, collected data on a round-trip, 60-day cruise from San Francisco Bay, down the U.S. and Mexican coast to Guadalupe Island. The cruise track was selected to optimize the science team’s validation and science objectives. The validation objectives include establishing the accuracy of these new measurements. The scientific objectives include validation of satellite-derived fluxes, sea surface temperatures, and wind vectors and studies of upwelling dynamics, river plumes, air–sea interactions including frontal regions, and diurnal warming regions. On this deployment, the Saildrone carried 16 atmospheric and oceanographic sensors. Future planned cruises (with open data policies) are focused on improving our understanding of air–sea fluxes in the Arctic Ocean and around North Brazil Current rings.
  • Article
    Turbulent mixing in a far‐field plume during the transition to upwelling conditions : microstructure observations from an AUV
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-09-23) Fisher, Alexander W. ; Nidzieko, Nicholas J. ; Scully, Malcolm E. ; Chant, Robert J. ; Hunter, Elias J. ; Mazzini, Piero L. F.
    A REMUS 600 autonomous underwater vehicle was used to measure turbulent mixing within the far‐field Chesapeake Bay plume during the transition to upwelling. Prior to the onset of upwelling, the plume was mixed by a combination of energetic downwelling winds and bottom‐generated shear resulting in a two‐layer plume structure. Estimates of turbulent dissipation and buoyancy flux from a nose‐mounted microstructure system indicate that scalar exchange within the plume was patchy and transient, with direct wind mixing constrained to the near surface by stratification within the plume. Changing wind and tide conditions contributed to temporal variability. Following the separation of the upper plume from the coast, alongshore shear became a significant driver of mixing on the shoreward edge of the plume.