Hartmut Peters

REDSOX - The Red Sea Outflow Experiment

The 2001 REDSOX experiment observed the outflow of the salty water from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden over a large range of scales from meter-scale turbulence to mesoscale eddies filling the width of the Gulf of Aden. The talk is focused on the "near field," the gravity currents in two narrow outflow channels south of Bab el Mandeb. The flow exhibits an interesting vertical structure with a mixed ~50m thick bottom layer and a thicker, stratified and sheared interfacial layer. The latter is the site of entrainment and, toward the lower end of the gravity current, of most of the transport. Direct measurements of turbulence in the bottom layer with an upward-looking ADCP reveal that the Reynolds stress extends to suprisingly large scales. REDSOX has spawned significant modeling activity at RSMAS. Beyond science, REDSOX is memorable for the "pirate attack" on the Maurice Ewing.