Turbulent mixing in the springtime central Adriatic Sea

Abstract

A small set of observations of upper ocean turbulent mixing, stratification and currents was obtained in the central Adriatic Sea in May 2003. Owing to light winds, the surface mixed layer was at most 10 m thick and usually much thinner. The water column below was mostly strongly stratified with partially restratified remnant of previous mixed layers. Mesoscale currents were weak with a significant barotropic component. Weak shear and strong stratification tended to combine to large Richardson numbers. Below a layer of enhanced mixing in the upper 10–20 m, eddy diffusivities were mostly small, ranging from 10^–6 m² s^–1 to about 5 x 10^–5 m² s^–1. Much larger values occurred in a few events, however.