A large coordinated experiment (HOME: Hawaiian Ocean Mixing Experiment) near the Hawaiian Ridge is underway to determine whether sites with rough topography are responsible for the mixing of the global ocean. The goals are to identify the major energy pathways for ocean mixing and achieve an approximate energy budget for the region. This project is part of the near-field experiment of the HOME project that focuses on the investigation of the dynamical processes in the immediate vicinity of the Hawaiian Ridge, and especially the response to barotropic tidal forcing including generation of low- and high-mode internal waves, propagation and turbulent dissipation and mixing. This sub-project will focus on understanding the mechanisms responsible for generating both low- and high-mode internal tides that radiate energy away from the Ridge and high wavenumber internal waves which dissipate nearer the generation region. Full-depth (including the bottom boundary layer) velocity, density and microstructure profiles will be collected to estimate energy flux, flux divergence and dissipation. Synoptic survey to sample across and along Ridge response will repeated every 2.5 hour for a period of at least 13 hours using XCPs. An extended occupation station (30+ hours) will investigate the contributions of non-tidal inertial motions.
