Lenain, Luc; Vrećica, Teodor S., Nicholas, Pizzo (2022). Data from: Airborne observations of shoaling and breaking internal waves. UC San Diego Library Digital Collections. https://doi.org/10.6075/J06110G9

This collection contains processed data presented in: Airborne observations of shoaling and breaking internal waves. The presented data can be used to reconstruct all of the figures and covers:
1) A mosaic of Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
2) Spectral analysis of the alongwave temperature structures.
3) Horizontal sea surface currents (and their derivatives) determined using the PIV method.
4) Vertical velocity and areas of the wave undergoing active breaking - determined using a simple model.

Abstract of the associated paper:
Internal waves are crucial contributors to the transport of sediment, heat, and nutrients in coastal areas. While internal waves have been extensively studied, their spatial variability is less well understood. In this paper we present a unique set of high-resolution infrared imagery collected from a helicopter, hovering over very energetic shoaling and breaking internal waves. We compute surface velocities by tracking in space and time the evolution of thermal structures at the ocean surface and find horizontal velocity gradients with magnitudes that are more than 100 times the Coriolis frequency. Based on a simple model, we determine vertical velocities (reaching 0.2 m/s) and areas of the wave undergoing breaking. The spatial variability of the internal wave is shown to occur on several scales, from a few to a few hundred meters. These results highlight the need to collect spatio-temporal observations of the evolution of internal waves in coastal areas.

• 2015-08-01

• 2022

• Lenain, Luc

• Pizzo, Nicholas
• Vrećica, Teodor S.

Software used:
Matlab: version 2021

Office of Naval Research (ONR): N00014-17-1-2171, N00014-14-1-0710, N00014-17-1-300
NASA: 80NSSC19K1688

• Point Sal (Calif.)

• Breaking internal waves
• High-resolution airborne observations
• Spatial inhomogeneity of internal waves
• Vertical transport

Point: 34.90303,-120.67045

• data
• text

• English

Identifier: Luc Lenain: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9808-1563

Identifier: Nicholas Pizzo: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9570-4200

Identifier: Teodor S. Vrećica: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6321-4338

Primary associated publication

• Vrećica, T., Pizzo, N., and Lenain, L. (2022). "Airborne observations of shoaling and breaking internal waves." Geophysical Research Letters (In review).

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License

• UC Regents

Under copyright (US)

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2023-06-30