Sullivan Peter P.

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Sullivan
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Peter P.
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  • Article
    Rapid mixed layer depening by the combination of Langmuir and shear instabilities : a case study
    (American Meteorological Society, 2010-11) Kukulka, Tobias ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Trowbridge, John H. ; Sullivan, Peter P.
    Langmuir circulation (LC) is a turbulent upper-ocean process driven by wind and surface waves that contributes significantly to the transport of momentum, heat, and mass in the oceanic surface layer. The authors have previously performed a direct comparison of large-eddy simulations and observations of the upper-ocean response to a wind event with rapid mixed layer deepening. The evolution of simulated crosswind velocity variance and spatial scales, as well as mixed layer deepening, was only consistent with observations if LC effects are included in the model. Based on an analysis of these validated simulations, in this study the fundamental differences in mixing between purely shear-driven turbulence and turbulence with LC are identified. In the former case, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) production due to shear instabilities is largest near the surface, gradually decreasing to zero near the base of the mixed layer. This stands in contrast to the LC case in which at middepth range TKE production can be dominated by Stokes drift shear. Furthermore, the Eulerian mean vertical shear peaks near the base of the mixed layer so that TKE production by mean shear flow is elevated there. LC transports horizontal momentum efficiently downward leading to an along-wind velocity jet below LC downwelling regions at the base of the mixed layer. Locally enhanced vertical shear instabilities as a result of this jet efficiently erode the thermocline. In turn, enhanced breaking internal waves inject cold deep water into the mixed layer, where LC currents transport temperature perturbation advectively. Thus, LC and locally generated shear instabilities work intimately together to facilitate strongly the mixed layer deepening process.
  • Article
    Significance of Langmuir circulation in upper ocean mixing : comparison of observations and simulations
    (American Geophysical Union, 2009-05-28) Kukulka, Tobias ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Trowbridge, John H. ; Sullivan, Peter P.
    Representing upper ocean turbulence accurately in models remains a great challenge for improving weather and climate projections. Langmuir circulation (LC) is a turbulent process driven by wind and surface waves that plays a key role in transferring momentum, heat, and mass in the oceanic surface layer. We present a direct comparison between observations and large eddy simulations, based on the wave-averaged Navier-Stokes equation, of an LC growth event. The evolution of cross-wind velocity variance and spatial scales, as well as mixed layer deepening are only consistent with simulations if LC effects are included in the model. Our results offer a validation of the large eddy simulation approach to understanding LC dynamics, and demonstrate the importance of LC in ocean surface layer mixing.
  • Article
    The influence of crosswind tidal currents on Langmuir circulation in a shallow ocean
    (American Geophysical Union, 2011-08-04) Kukulka, Tobias ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Trowbridge, John H. ; Sullivan, Peter P.
    Langmuir circulation (LC) is a turbulent process driven by wind and surface waves that plays a key role in transferring momentum, heat, and mass in the oceanic surface layer. On the coastal shelves the largest-scale LC span the whole water column and thus couple the surface and bottom boundary layers and enhance turbulent mixing. Observations and large eddy simulations (LES) of a shallow coastal ocean demonstrate that these relatively large scale Langmuir cells are strongly influenced by crosswind tidal currents. Two mechanisms by which crosswind tidal shear may distort and disrupt Langmuir cells are proposed. The first mechanism involves cell shearing due to differential advection across the whole cell. For the second mechanism, middepth vertical LC currents advect sheared mean crosswind current, leading to the attraction of upwelling and downwelling regions, so that LC cells are unsustainable when both regions overlap. Scaling arguments indicate that LC cells are more susceptible to crosswind shear distortion for smaller LC surface velocity convergence and greater cell aspect ratio (vertical to horizontal LC scale), which is consistent with the results obtained from the observations and LES. These results imply that scaling of LC characteristics in a coastal ocean differs from that in the open ocean, which has important practical implications for parameterizing enhanced mixing due to LC.
  • Article
    Nonlocal transport due to Langmuir circulation in a coastal ocean
    (American Geophysical Union, 2012-12-11) Kukulka, Tobias ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Sullivan, Peter P.
    We present observations and simulations of large-scale velocity structures associated with turbulent boundary layer dynamics of a coastal ocean. Special purpose acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements revealed that such structures were frequently present, in spite of complex coastal environmental conditions. Large eddy simulation results are only consistent with these observations if the Langmuir circulation (LC) effect due to wave-current interaction is included in the model. Thus, model results indicate that the observed large-scale velocity structures are due to LC. Based on these simulations, we examine the shift of energetics and transport from a local regime for purely shear-driven turbulence to a nonlocal regime for turbulence with LC due to coherent large-scale motions that span the whole water column. Without LC, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rates approximately balance TKE shear production, consistent with solid wall boundary layer turbulence. This stands in contrast to the LC case for which the vertical TKE transport plays a dominant role in the TKE balance. Conditional averages argue that large-scale LC coherent velocity structures extract only a small fraction of energy from the wavefield but receive most of their energy input from the Eulerian shear. The analysis of scalar fields and Lagrangian particles demonstrates that the vertical transport is significantly enhanced with LC but that small-scale mixing may be reduced. In the presence of LC, vertical scalar fluxes may be up gradient, violating a common assumption in oceanic boundary layer turbulence parameterizations.
  • Article
    Inhibited upper ocean restratification in nonequilibrium swell conditions
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-07-30) Kukulka, Tobias ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Sullivan, Peter P.
    Diurnal restratification of the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) represents a competition between mixing of the OSBL and solar heating. Langmuir turbulence (LT) is a mixing process in the OSBL, driven by wind and surface waves, that transfers momentum, heat, and mass. Observations in nonequilibrium swell conditions reveal that the OSBL does not restratify despite low winds and strong solar radiation. Motivated by observations, we use large-eddy simulations of the wave-averaged Navier-Stokes equations to show that LT is capable of inhibiting diurnal restratification of the OSBL. Incoming heat is redistributed vertically by LT, forming a warmer OSBL with a nearly uniform temperature. The inhibition of restratification is not reproduced by two common Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation models, highlighting the importance of properly representing sea-state dependent LT dynamics in OSBL models.
  • Article
    EUREC4A
    (Copernicus Publications, 2021-08-25) Stevens, Bjorn ; Bony, Sandrine ; Farrell, David ; Ament, Felix ; Blyth, Alan ; Fairall, Christopher W. ; Karstensen, Johannes ; Quinn, Patricia K. ; Speich, Sabrina ; Acquistapace, Claudia ; Aemisegger, Franziska ; Albright, Anna Lea ; Bellenger, Hugo ; Bodenschatz, Eberhard ; Caesar, Kathy-Ann ; Chewitt-Lucas, Rebecca ; de Boer, Gijs ; Delanoë, Julien ; Denby, Leif ; Ewald, Florian ; Fildier, Benjamin ; Forde, Marvin ; George, Geet ; Gross, Silke ; Hagen, Martin ; Hausold, Andrea ; Heywood, Karen J. ; Hirsch, Lutz ; Jacob, Marek ; Jansen, Friedhelm ; Kinne, Stefan ; Klocke, Daniel ; Kölling, Tobias ; Konow, Heike ; Lothon, Marie ; Mohr, Wiebke ; Naumann, Ann Kristin ; Nuijens, Louise ; Olivier, Léa ; Pincus, Robert ; Pöhlker, Mira L. ; Reverdin, Gilles ; Roberts, Gregory ; Schnitt, Sabrina ; Schulz, Hauke ; Siebesma, Pier ; Stephan, Claudia Christine ; Sullivan, Peter P. ; Touzé-Peiffer, Ludovic ; Vial, Jessica ; Vogel, Raphaela ; Zuidema, Paquita ; Alexander, Nicola ; Alves, Lyndon ; Arixi, Sophian ; Asmath, Hamish ; Bagheri, Gholamhossein ; Baier, Katharina ; Bailey, Adriana ; Baranowski, Dariusz ; Baron, Alexandre ; Barrau, Sébastien ; Barrett, Paul A. ; Batier, Frédéric ; Behrendt, Andreas ; Bendinger, Arne ; Beucher, Florent ; Bigorre, Sebastien P. ; Blades, Edmund ; Blossey, Peter ; Bock, Olivier ; Böing, Steven ; Bosser, Pierre ; Bourras, Denis ; Bouruet-Aubertot, Pascale ; Bower, Keith ; Branellec, Pierre ; Branger, Hubert ; Brennek, Michal ; Brewer, Alan ; Brilouet, Pierre-Etienne ; Brügmann, Björn ; Buehler, Stefan A. ; Burke, Elmo ; Burton, Ralph ; Calmer, Radiance ; Canonici, Jean-Christophe ; Carton, Xavier ; Cato, Gregory, Jr. ; Charles, Jude Andre ; Chazette, Patrick ; Chen, Yanxu ; Chilinski, Michal T. ; Choularton, Thomas ; Chuang, Patrick ; Clarke, Shamal ; Coe, Hugh ; Cornet, Céline ; Coutris, Pierre ; Couvreux, Fleur ; Crewell, Susanne ; Cronin, Timothy W. ; Cui, Zhiqiang ; Cuypers, Yannis ; Daley, Alton ; Damerell, Gillian M. ; Dauhut, Thibaut ; Deneke, Hartwig ; Desbios, Jean-Philippe ; Dörner, Steffen ; Donner, Sebastian ; Douet, Vincent ; Drushka, Kyla ; Dütsch, Marina ; Ehrlich, André ; Emanuel, Kerry A. ; Emmanouilidis, Alexandros ; Etienne, Jean-Claude ; Etienne-Leblanc, Sheryl ; Faure, Ghislain ; Feingold, Graham ; Ferrero, Luca ; Fix, Andreas ; Flamant, Cyrille ; Flatau, Piotr Jacek ; Foltz, Gregory R. ; Forster, Linda ; Furtuna, Iulian ; Gadian, Alan ; Galewsky, Joseph ; Gallagher, Martin ; Gallimore, Peter ; Gaston, Cassandra J. ; Gentemann, Chelle L. ; Geyskens, Nicolas ; Giez, Andreas ; Gollop, John ; Gouirand, Isabelle ; Gourbeyre, Christophe ; de Graaf, Dörte ; de Graaf, Geiske E. ; Grosz, Robert ; Güttler, Johannes ; Gutleben, Manuel ; Hall, Kashawn ; Harris, George ; Helfer, Kevin C. ; Henze, Dean ; Herbert, Calvert ; Holanda, Bruna ; Ibanez-Landeta, Antonio ; Intrieri, Janet ; Iyer, Suneil ; Julien, Fabrice ; Kalesse, Heike ; Kazil, Jan ; Kellman, Alexander ; Kidane, Abiel T. ; Kirchner, Ulrike ; Klingebiel, Marcus ; Körner, Mareike ; Kremper, Leslie Ann ; Kretzschmar, Jan ; Krüger, Ovid O. ; Kumala, Wojciech ; Kurz, Armin ; L'Hégareta, Pierre ; Labaste, Matthieu ; Lachlan-Cope, Thomas ; Laing, Arlene ; Landschützer, Peter ; Lang, Theresa ; Lange, Diego ; Lange, Ingo ; Laplace, Clément ; Lavik, Gauke ; Laxenaire, Rémi ; Le Bihan, Caroline ; Leandro, Mason ; Lefevre, Nathalie ; Lena, Marius ; Lenschow, Donald ; Li, Qiang ; Lloyd, Gary ; Los, Sebastian ; Losi, Niccolò ; Lovell, Oscar ; Luneau, Christopher ; Makuch, Przemyslaw ; Malinowski, Szymon ; Manta, Gaston ; Marinou, Eleni ; Marsden, Nicholas ; Masson, Sebastien ; Maury, Nicolas ; Mayer, Bernhard ; Mayers-Als, Margarette ; Mazel, Christophe ; McGeary, Wayne ; McWilliams, James C. ; Mech, Mario ; Mehlmann, Melina ; Meroni, Agostino Niyonkuru ; Mieslinger, Theresa ; Minikin, Andreas ; Minnett, Peter J. ; Möller, Gregor ; Morfa Avalos, Yanmichel ; Muller, Caroline ; Musat, Ionela ; Napoli, Anna ; Neuberger, Almuth ; Noisel, Christophe ; Noone, David ; Nordsiek, Freja ; Nowak, Jakub L. ; Oswald, Lothar ; Parker, Douglas J. ; Peck, Carolyn ; Person, Renaud ; Philippi, Miriam ; Plueddemann, Albert J. ; Pöhlker, Christopher ; Pörtge, Veronika ; Pöschl, Ulrich ; Pologne, Lawrence ; Posyniak, Michał ; Prange, Marc ; Quinones Melendez, Estefania ; Radtke, Jule ; Ramage, Karim ; Reimann, Jens ; Renault, Lionel ; Reus, Klaus ; Reyes, Ashford ; Ribbe, Joachim ; Ringel, Maximilian ; Ritschel, Markus ; Rocha, Cesar B. ; Rochetin, Nicolas ; Röttenbacher, Johannes ; Rollo, Callum ; Royer, Haley M. ; Sadoulet, Pauline ; Saffin, Leo ; Sandiford, Sanola ; Sandu, Irina ; Schäfer, Michael ; Schemann, Vera ; Schirmacher, Imke ; Schlenczek, Oliver ; Schmidt, Jerome M. ; Schröder, Marcel ; Schwarzenboeck, Alfons ; Sealy, Andrea ; Senff, Christoph J. ; Serikov, Ilya ; Shohan, Samkeyat ; Siddle, Elizabeth ; Smirnov, Alexander ; Späth, Florian ; Spooner, Branden ; Stolla, M. Katharina ; Szkółka, Wojciech ; de Szoeke, Simon P. ; Tarot, Stéphane ; Tetoni, Eleni ; Thompson, Elizabeth ; Thomson, Jim ; Tomassini, Lorenzo ; Totems, Julien ; Ubele, Alma Anna ; Villiger, Leonie ; von Arx, Jan ; Wagner, Thomas ; Walther, Andi ; Webber, Ben ; Wendisch, Manfred ; Whitehall, Shanice ; Wiltshire, Anton ; Wing, Allison A. ; Wirth, Martin ; Wiskandt, Jonathan ; Wolf, Kevin ; Worbes, Ludwig ; Wright, Ethan ; Young, Shanea ; Zhang, Chidong ; Zhang, Dongxiao ; Ziemen, Florian ; Zinner, Tobias ; Zöger, Martin
    The science guiding the EUREC4A campaign and its measurements is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. Through its ability to characterize processes operating across a wide range of scales, EUREC4A marked a turning point in our ability to observationally study factors influencing clouds in the trades, how they will respond to warming, and their link to other components of the earth system, such as upper-ocean processes or the life cycle of particulate matter. This characterization was made possible by thousands (2500) of sondes distributed to measure circulations on meso- (200 km) and larger (500 km) scales, roughly 400 h of flight time by four heavily instrumented research aircraft; four global-class research vessels; an advanced ground-based cloud observatory; scores of autonomous observing platforms operating in the upper ocean (nearly 10 000 profiles), lower atmosphere (continuous profiling), and along the air–sea interface; a network of water stable isotopologue measurements; targeted tasking of satellite remote sensing; and modeling with a new generation of weather and climate models. In addition to providing an outline of the novel measurements and their composition into a unified and coordinated campaign, the six distinct scientific facets that EUREC4A explored – from North Brazil Current rings to turbulence-induced clustering of cloud droplets and its influence on warm-rain formation – are presented along with an overview of EUREC4A's outreach activities, environmental impact, and guidelines for scientific practice. Track data for all platforms are standardized and accessible at https://doi.org/10.25326/165 (Stevens, 2021), and a film documenting the campaign is provided as a video supplement.