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Profiling a Turbulent Sea

June 25, 2013

Scientist Lou St. Laurent and engineer Ken Decoteau (both of WHOI) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate student Uriel Zajaczkovski (right to left) prepare a deep microstructure profiler for deployment in the Scotia Sea. The instrument made multiple four-hour round trips to 4,500 meters depth collecting data on sub-centimeter-scale variations in the seawater to calculate turbulence levels. The researchers participated in a 50-day cruise aboard the British vessel James Cook in 2012. The work is part of a larger study of turbulent processes and ocean mixing, called DIMES, being conducted jointly by investigators from the U.S. and U.K.(Photo courtesy of Lou St. Laurent, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)