Finestructure

From Glossary of Meteorology



finestructure

Small-scale structure in the fields of temperature, salinity, density, and/or velocity.

The term finestructure refers in the ocean to structures of vertical scale smaller than 100 m and larger than 1 m, usually associated with small-scale physical factors that may cause mixing, but not with the mixing events themselves. Examples are interleaving motions, inertial and internal waves, and vertical modes. Note the overlap in the vertical scale with that of microstructure.


Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this work, please contact permissions@ametsoc.org. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 107) or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S.Copyright Act (17 USC § 108) does not require AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, require written permission or a license from AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement.