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Caitlin Whalen Senior Oceanographer cwhalen@apl.uw.edu Phone 206-685-1505 |
Research Interests
Small-scale oceanic processes as viewed from global and regional scales including diapycnal mixing, internal waves, submesoscale dynamics, airsea interactions, and mesoscaleinternal wave interactions
Education
B.A. Physics, Reed College, 2008
Ph.D. Physical Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, 2015
Publications |
2000-present and while at APL-UW |
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Large-scale impacts of the mesoscale environment on mixing from wind-driven internal waves Whalen, C.B., J.A. MacKinnon, and L.D. Talley, "Large-scale impacts of the mesoscale environment on mixing from wind-driven internal waves," Nat. Geosci., 11, 842-847, doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0213-6, 2018. |
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17 Sep 2018 ![]() |
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Oceanic mesoscale structures such as eddies and fronts can alter the propagation, breaking and subsequent turbulent mixing of wind-generated internal waves. However, it has been difficult to ascertain whether these processes affect the global-scale patterns, timing and magnitude of turbulent mixing, thereby powering the global oceanic overturning circulation and driving the transport of heat and dissolved gases. Here we present global evidence demonstrating that mesoscale features can significantly enhance turbulent mixing due to wind-generated internal waves. Using internal wave-driven mixing estimates calculated from Argo profiling floats between 30° and 45°N, we find that both the amplitude of the seasonal cycle of turbulent mixing and the response to increases in the wind energy flux are larger to a depth of at least 2,000 m in the presence of a strong and temporally uniform field of mesoscale eddy kinetic energy. Mixing is especially strong within energetic anticyclonic mesoscale features compared to cyclonic features, indicating that local modification of wind-driven internal waves is probably one mechanism contributing to the elevated mixing observed in energetic mesoscale environments. |
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Climate process team on internal-wave driven ocean mixing MacKinnon, J.A., Z. Zhao, C.B. Whalen, and 32 others "Climate process team on internal-wave driven ocean mixing," Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98, 2429-2454, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0030.1, 2017. |
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1 Nov 2017 ![]() |
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Recent advances in our understanding of internal-wave driven turbulent mixing in the ocean interior are summarized. New parameterizations for global climate ocean models, and their climate impacts, are introduced. |
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ASIRI: An oceanatmosphere initiative for Bay of Bengal Wijesekera, H.W., and 46 others, including C.M. Lee, L. Rainville, K.M. Stafford, and C.B. Whalen, "ASIRI: An oceanatmosphere initiative for Bay of Bengal," Bull. Am. Meteor., Soc., 97, 1859-1884, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00197.1, 2016. |
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1 Oct 2016 ![]() |
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AirSea Interactions in the Northern Indian Ocean (ASIRI) is an international research effort (201317) aimed at understanding and quantifying coupled atmosphereocean dynamics of the Bay of Bengal (BoB) with relevance to Indian Ocean monsoons. Working collaboratively, more than 20 research institutions are acquiring field observations coupled with operational and high-resolution models to address scientific issues that have stymied the monsoon predictability. ASIRI combines new and mature observational technologies to resolve submesoscale to regional-scale currents and hydrophysical fields. These data reveal BoB’s sharp frontal features, submesoscale variability, low-salinity lenses and filaments, and shallow mixed layers, with relatively weak turbulent mixing. Observed physical features include energetic high-frequency internal waves in the southern BoB, energetic mesoscale and submesoscale features including an intrathermocline eddy in the central BoB, and a high-resolution view of the exchange along the periphery of Sri Lanka, which includes the 100-km-wide East India Coastal Current (EICC) carrying low-salinity water out of the BoB and an adjacent, broad northward flow (~300 km wide) that carries high-salinity water into BoB during the northeast monsoon. Atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) observations during the decaying phase of the MaddenJulian oscillation (MJO) permit the study of multiscale atmospheric processes associated with non-MJO phenomena and their impacts on the marine boundary layer. Underway analyses that integrate observations and numerical simulations shed light on how airsea interactions control the ABL and upper-ocean processes. |