Entrainment and Turbulence in Saline Underflow in Lake Ogawara

Abstract

Under certain tidal conditions, a saline underflow originating in the Pacific Ocean moves into Lake Ogawara, Japan. The underflow consists of a uniform saline bottom layer that is slightly warmer than the ambient and an interfacial shear layer in which the velocity and density are decreased. Within the experimental area the underflow is confined to a channel approximately 1 km wide and is essentially two-dimensional. The underflow had a bulk Richardson number, defined in terms of the mean properties, between 1 and 2. The rate of entrainment into the bottom layer was calculated using two distinct methods. The first method used the change in the maximum salinity of the underflow measured at two stations along the path of the underflow to infer the amount of ambient water entrained. The second method made direct measurements of vertical mass fluxes with a profiler. The agreement between the two methods was excellent. The measured entrainment coefficients were consistent with the derived entrainment law. The turbulent structure of the flow was mapped for a 3 h quasisteady period of the flow. Turbulence is predominantly generated on the bottom boundary and is transported vertically to the density interface, where it leads to mixing.