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In physical oceanography, Langmuir circulation consists of a series of shallow, slow, counter-rotating vortices at the ocean's surface aligned with the wind. These circulations are developed when wind blows steadily over the sea surface. Irving Langmuir discovered this phenomenon after observing windrows of seaweed in the Sargasso Sea in 1927. [1]
The CL vortex force is used to explain the generation of Langmuir circulations by an instability mechanism. The CL vortex-force mechanism was derived and studied by Sidney Leibovich and Alex D. D. Craik in the 1970s and 80s, in their studies of Langmuir circulations (discovered by Irving Langmuir in the 1930s).
In the upper ocean Langmuir circulations are a special case where the turbulent structures exhibit a dominant cell size. In general it is expected that Langmuir turbulence is a global ocean phenomenon and not confined to gentle wind conditions or shallow water ways (as with most observations of Langmuir circulation). [2]
Langmuir circulation results in the occurrence of thin, visible stripes, called windrows on the surface of the ocean parallel to the direction that the wind is blowing. If the wind is blowing with more than 3 m s −1 , it can create parallel windrows alternating upwelling and downwelling about 5–300 m apart.
Langmuir circulation develops from the wind, which, through Ekman transport, creates alternating zones of convergence and divergence at the ocean surface. In convergent zones, marked by long strips of floating debris accumulation, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch , coherent vortices transport surface waters to the base of the mixed layer ...
It plays a crucial role in the generation of Langmuir circulations. [3] For nonlinear and periodic water waves, accurate results on the Stokes drift have been computed and tabulated. [ 4 ]
Gargett's research encompasses turbulence, [9] internal waves, [10] and the connections between mixing in the water column and biological processes. [11] Her research on turbulence levels in shallow waters [12] has identified Langmuir supercells, or large-scale Langmuir circulation, that cause extensive mixing of sediment in the coastal zone. [13]
Open ocean wind circulation can lead to gyre-like structures of piled up sea surface water resulting in horizontal gradients of sea surface height. [1] This pile up of water causes the water to have a downward flow and suction, due to gravity and mass balance. Ekman pumping downward in the central ocean is a consequence of this convergence of ...