DOI: 10.1615/TSFP4
CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGMUIR TURBULENCE OBSERVED IN SHALLOW WATER
RÉSUMÉ
Recent acoustic observations in shallow coastal waters have provided unique measurements of the properties of both mean and turbulent fields associated with sporadic occurrence of turbulent eddies that develop first near the sea surface as wind forcing increases and eventually engulf the full water column during extended storms. The "large eddies" of this turbulent field exhibit many of the features described as characteristic of Langmuir circulations, modified by the presence of a bottom boundary. Several diagnostics accessible to the observational data agree with results of associated LES of turbulence in a surface-stress-driven Couette flow when the Langmuir vortex forcing term is included. A particularly sensitive diagnostic, the depth trajectory of Lumley invariants, is strikingly different for Langmuir and non-Langmuir turbulence.