Observations of the internal wave to turbulence cascade

Shear spectral energy density (shear spectra) is measured across three decades in vertical wavenumber using a Wirewalker profiler equipped with a microstructure instrument and a pulse-coherent Doppler sonar. We identify the features of the canonical ocean vertical shear spectrum, including an internal wave band, an intermediate saturation band whose spectral level is independent of turbulent dissipation, and a three-dimensional turbulence band. The internal wave band and saturation band of the spectrum scale as $\Phi_{IW}\sim\varepsilon\frac{1}{2}N1f{- \frac{1}{2}}$ and $\Phi_{sat}\sim N2 k_z^{-1}$ respectively. These scalings hold despite the deployment location at the head of a La Jolla canyon, a deep canyon incising the shelf off La Jolla, California, where weakly non-linear wave-wave interaction is not the primary physical process driving the forward energy cascade. In La Jolla Canyon, high-amplitude, tidally driven internal waves generate significant strain, resulting in turbulent ..., , # Data from: Observations of the internal wave to turbulence cascade

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.8sf7m0d44](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8sf7m0d44)

## Description of the data and file structure

This set of data and scripts is provided alongside the manuscript \"Observations of the internal wave to turbulence cascade\" to fulfill data availability requirements. Data used to generate figures in that manuscript are included. All code written by Devon Northcott ([[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])). All data is in NetCDF format; NetCDF can be read in Python using the netCDF4 or Xarray packages, or in MATLAB, with instructions on how to open NetCDF files in MATLAB using their high-level NetCDT functions. Data is from a Wirewalker wave-powered profiler deployment in roughly 100m of water at the head of La Jolla Canyon (32.8564 N,-117.2665 W).

### Files and variables

#### File: DA_final.zip

**Description:** 

**Data**

**RawProfile2_20231005-1132.nc:** Contains a single wirewal..., ,