Submerged turbulence detection with optical satellites

During fall periods in 2002, 2003 and 2004 three major oceanographic expeditions were carried out in Mamala Bay, Hawaii. These were part of the RASP Remote Anthropogenic Sensing Program. Ikonos and Quickbird optical satellite images of sea surface glint revealed ~100 m spectral anomalies in km^2 averaging patches in regions leading from the Honolulu Sand Island Municipal Outfall diffuser to distances up to 20 km. To determine the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, the RASP expeditions monitored the waters adjacent to the outfall with an array of hydrographic, optical and turbulence microstructure sensors in anomaly and ambient background regions. Drogue tracks and mean turbulence parameters for 2x10^4 microstructure patches were analyzed to understand complex turbulence, fossil turbulence and zombie turbulence near-vertical internal wave transport processes. The dominant mechanism appears to be generic to stratified natural fluids including planet and star atmospheres and is termed beamed zombie turbulence maser action (BZTMA). Most of the bottom turbulent kinetic energy is converted to ~100 m fossil turbulence waves. These activate secondary (zombie) turbulence in outfall fossil turbulence patches that transmit heat, mass, chemical species, momentum and information vertically to the sea surface for detection in an efficient maser action. The transport is beamed in intermittent mixing chimneys.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, SPIE Optics+Photonics 2007 Coastal Ocean Remote Sensing Aug. 27, San Diego, CA, see http://sdcc3.ucsd.edu/~ir11

Energetics of the Beamed Zombie Turbulence Maser Action Mechanism for Remote Detection of Submerged Oceanic Turbulence

Sea surface brightness spectral anomalies from a Honolulu municipal outfall have been detected from space satellites in 200 km2 areas extending 20 km from the wastewater diffuser (Leung and Gibson 2004, Bondur 2005, Keeler et al. 2005, Gibson et al. 2006). Dropsonde and towed body microstructure measurements show greatly enhanced viscous and temperature dissipation rates above the outfall trapping-layer. Fossil-turbulencewaves (FTWs) and secondary zombie-turbulence-waves (ZTWs) break as they propagate near-vertically and then break again near the surface to produce wind-ripple smoothing with narrow-wavelength λ patterns from the soliton-like internal waves that supply turbulence energy to advected outfall fossils and to the ZTWs they radiate. The λ = 30-250 m solitons reflect an efficient maser-action conversion of horizontal tidal and current kinetic energy by bottom boundary layer turbulence events to near-vertical FTWs with λ the Ozmidov scale of the events at fossilization. Secondary (zombie) turbulence amplifies, channels in chimneys, and near-vertically beams ambient internal wave energy at scales λ just as energized metastable molecules amplify and beam quantum wavelengths in astrophysical lasers and masers around stars. Kilowatts of buoyancy power from the treatment plant produce fossil turbulence patches trapped below the thermocline. Beamed zombie turbulence maser action (BZTMA) in mixing chimneys amplifies these kilowatts into the megawatts of surface turbulence dissipation required to affect brightness on wide sea surface areas. The BZTMA vertical mixing mechanism appears critical to vertical oceanic transport of information, heat, mass and momentum, and to the conversion of barotropic tides to baroclinic tides