AUV observations of Langmuir turbulence in a stratified shelf sea

Measurements collected by a REMUS 600 AUV off the coast of southern California demonstrate large-scale coherent wave-driven vortices, consistent with Langmuir turbulence (LT), played a dominant role in structuring turbulent dissipation within the oceanic surface boundary layer. During a 10-hour period with sustained wind speeds of 10 m/s, Langmuir circulations were limited to the upper third of the surface mixed layer by persistent stratification within the water column. The ensemble-averaged circulation, calculated using conditional averaging of AD2CP velocity profiles using elevated backscattering intensity associated with subsurface bubble clouds, indicates that LT vortex pairs were characterized by an energetic downwelling zone flanked by broader, weaker upwelling regions with vertical velocity magnitudes similar to previous numerical studies of LT. Horizontally-distributed microstructure estimates of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates were lognormally-distributed near th..., , , # AUV observations of Langmuir turbulence in a stratified shelf sea

[https://doi.org/10.25349/D9MW50](https://doi.org/10.25349/D9MW50)

## Description of the data and file structure

This archive contains data collected off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA in May 2022 as described in section 2 of Fisher, A. W., & Nidzieko, N. J. (2024). AUV Observations of Langmuir Turbulence in a Stratified Shelf Sea. *Journal of Physical Oceanography*. doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-23-0136.1.

Data are provided as MATLAB .mat files and all timestamps are in UTC.

### Files and variables

#### File: data\_archive.zip

**Folders & Description:** 

* \GB4A_Airmar\
surface meteorological conditions measured by an Airmar 200WX mounted on the GB4A transponder buoy
* \Nortek_Signature1000\
Acoustic current profiles, backscatter intensity, and inertial measurements used in the characterization of Langmuir cell structure and circulation. Raw measurements are provided as well as data which has been motion corrected...,