Observations and situations of upper-ocean response to wind events during the Ocean Storms Experiment

The Ocean Storms dataset is used to compile observations of the oceanic response to midlatitude storms. Of particular interest are episodic mixed layer temperature cooling events whose characteristics are reviewed. A method for processing irregular drifting buoy position fixes to yield estimates of the geostrophic, ageostropic, and inertial mixed layer currents is developed. From these currents the ocean's dynamic responses, namely, the change in mixed layer inertial kinetic energy and the ageostrophic particle displacement, are computed. The process of removing horizontal and vertical advection and surface heating from potential energy and mixed layer temperature responses is described. The implied data set is also used to provide the initial conditions and the surface forcing required to run three one-dimensional numerical models of ocean vertical mixing. All three models are shown to qualitatively exhibit the observed behaviour, including episodic cooling. -from Authors