OCEAN MIXING BY WAVE ORBITAL MOTION

Improvements in numerical ocean models and more and better observations have made the gaps between the two all the more apparent. In a recent resurgence in the study of turbulence due to wave orbital motion, some scholars have sought to address part of the problem by proposing the mechanism as an important missing part from vertical mixing models. Yet the subject remains contentious. This review is an attempt to bring together in one place the main results and insights from almost a century of scholarly discourse on the subject, demonstrating the breadth of ideas therein, as well as highlighting some of the outstanding problems.