Multiscale Study of Currents Affected by Topography

: This work seeks to understand the effects of topography on the ocean general and regional circulation with a focus on the wide range of scales of interactions. The small-scale details of the topography and the waves, eddies, drag, and turbulence it generates (at spatial scales ranging from meters to mesoscale) interact in the boundary layers to influence the ambient larger-scale flow. We have studied these issues through ocean model simulations, adjoint sensitivity experiments, and state estimation using ocean observations in the region surrounding an island in the westward-flowing limb of the subtropical gyre.