Premium
The diurnal thermocline due to buoyant convection
Author(s) -
Dalu G. A.,
Purini R.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710845812
Subject(s) - thermocline , convection , convective mixing , mixing (physics) , geology , thermal , atmospheric sciences , salinity , temperature salinity diagrams , mechanics , climatology , meteorology , environmental science , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics
A simple model, including solar radiation, surface colling and buoyant convective adjustment is used to study the temperature distribution in the uppermost layers of the ocean, assuming that the salinity is uniformly distributed and that wind mixing is negligible. It is found that the depth of convection cannot be identified with the thermal compensation depth: time dependent solutions show that the lags are such that equilibrium solutions may be misleading.