Reply to “Comments on ‘Langmuir Turbulence and Surface Heating in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer’”

Pearson, Brodie C.; Grant, Alan L. M.; Polton, Jeff A.; Belcher, Stephen E.

NORA

Reply to “Comments on ‘Langmuir Turbulence and Surface Heating in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer’”

Pearson, Brodie C.; Grant, Alan L. M.; Polton, Jeff A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0131-5250; Belcher, Stephen E.. 2018 Reply to “Comments on ‘Langmuir Turbulence and Surface Heating in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer’”. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48 (2). 459-462. 10.1175/JPO-D-17-0176.1

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Abstract

The differences between the conclusions of Noh and Choi and of Pearson et al., which are largely a result of defining different length scales based on different quantities, are discussed. This study shows that the layer over which Langmuir turbulence mixes (nominally hTKE) under a stabilizing surface buoyancy flux should be scaled by a combination of the Langmuir stability length LL and initial/nocturnal boundary layer depth h0 rather than by the Zilitinkevich length.

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