Physics
Scientific paper
May 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995jgr...100.8677q&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 100, no. C5, p. 8677-8693
Physics
61
Annual Variations, Equatorial Regions, Flow Stability, Kinematics, Ocean Currents, Planetary Waves, Wave Propagation, In Situ Measurement, Pacific Ocean, Phase Velocity, Spatial Distribution, Water Depth, Wavelengths
Scientific paper
The kinematics of planetary waves originating from instability of the near-surface equatorial currents are reported on using velocity measurements from an array of acoustic Doppler current profilers deployed in the equatorial Pacific during the Tropical Instability Wave Experiment. A distinctive wave season was observed from August to December 1990, with wave energy confined primarily above the core of the Equatorial Undercurrent. Particle motions in the horizontal plane are described by eccentric ellipses oriented toward the north, but tilting into the cyclonic shear of the South Equatorial Current. The tilt is maximum near the surface just north of the equator and decreases to the south and with depth. The distribution of wave variance is narrowband in both frequency and zonal wavenumber, with central period, zonal wavelength, and westward directed phase propagation estimated to be 500 hours, 1060 km, and 59 cm/s, respectively. Neither the meridional nor the vertical wavenumber component is statistically different from zero. These reuslts generally agree with previous findings on tropical instability waves from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and, in the undersampled arena of geophysical measurements, they provide an example where statistical inference is supported by an ensemble of independent measurements.
Qiao Liang
Weisberg Robert H.
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