Experimental evaluation of the characteristics of vertical mixing in an oceanic thermohalocline on the basis of fine-structure spectra of advection, salt fingers, and small-scale internal waves

Characteristics of the mixing effect of small-scale internal waves in the upper layer of the Black Sea according to the data of fine-structure sounding

“…This scheme of fine-structure data processing was developed and approved mainly for the data array accumulated under the conditions of oceanic thermohalocline [6]. In the present work, we study the results of application of the developed scheme to the analysis of the fine-structure data for the upper layer of the Black Sea.…”

“…The average value of K w was equal to 10.9.10 -2 cm 2 s -1, i.e., somewhat lower than its value for the oceanic thermohalocline: K w = 13.7.10-2 cm 2 s -1 [6]. The fact that the shape of the spectrum of wave elevations in the analyzed layer of the Black Sea waters is well preserved as the level changes enables us to express the dispersion of wave elevations in a certain spectral window via the nonlinearity factor 1I specifying the intensity of the spectrum of elevations in the compensation interval.…”