In physical oceanography, Langmuir circulation consists of a series of shallow, slow, counter-rotating vortices at the ocean's surface aligned with the wind. These circulations are developed when wind blows steadily over the sea surface. Irving Langmuir discovered this phenomenon after observing windrows of seaweed in the Sargasso Sea in 1927. Langmuir circulations circulate within the mixed layer; however, it is not yet so clear how strongly they can cause mixing at the base of the mixed layer.
Theory
The driving force of these circulations is an interaction of the mean flow with wave averaged flows of the surface waves. Stokes drift velocity of the waves stretches and tilts the vorticity of the flow near the surface. The production of vorticity in the upper ocean is balanced by downward (often turbulent) diffusion . For a flow driven by a wind characterized by friction velocity the ratio of vorticity diffusion and production defines the Langmuir number
where the first definition is for a monochromatic wave field of amplitude , frequency , and wavenumber and the second uses a generic inverse length scale , and Stokes velocity scale . This is exemplified by the Craik–Leibovich equations which are an approximation of the Lagrangian mean. In the Boussinesq approximation the governing equations can be written
where
is the fluid velocity, is planetary rotation, is the Stokes drift velocity of the surface wave field, is the pressure, is the acceleration due to gravity, is the density, is the reference density, is the viscosity, and is the diffusivity.
In the open ocean conditions where there may not be a dominant length scale controlling the scale of the Langmuir cells the concept of Langmuir Turbulence is advanced.
Observations
The circulation has been observed to be between 0°–20° to the right of the wind in the northern hemisphere
and the helix forming bands of divergence and convergence at the surface. At the convergence zones, there are commonly concentrations of floating seaweed, foam and debris along these bands. Along these divergent zones, the ocean surface is typically clear of debris since diverging currents force material out of this zone and into adjacent converging zones. At the surface the circulation will set a current from the divergence zone to the convergence zone and the spacing between these zones are of the order of . Below convergence zones narrow jets of downward flow form and the magnitude of the current will be comparable to the horizontal flow. The downward propagation will typically be in the order of meters or tenths of meters and will not penetrate the pycnocline. The upwelling is less intense and takes place over a wider band under the divergence zone. In wind speeds ranging from the maximum vertical velocity ranged from with a ratio of down-welling to wind velocities ranging from −0.0025 to −0.0085.
Biological effects
Langmuir circulations (LCs), which are counter-rotating cylindrical roll vortices in the upper ocean, have significant role in vertical mixing. Though they are transient and their strength as well as direction depend on wind and wave properties, they facilitate mixing of nutrients and affect the distribution of marine organisms like plankton in the upper mixed layer of ocean. The wind-generated roll vortices create regions where organisms of different buoyancy, orientation and swimming behavior can aggregate, resulting in patchiness. Indeed, LC can produce significant aggregation of algae during events like red tide. Theoretically, LC size increases with the wind speed unless limited by density discontinuities by pycnocline. But the visibility of surface effects of LC could be limited by the breaking waves during strong winds that disperse the materials present at the surface. So, the surface effects of LC are more likely to be visible during winds stronger than critical wind speed of 3 m/s but not too strong.
Moreover, previous studies have shown that organisms and materials can aggregate at different regions within LC like downwelling current in convergent zone, upwelling current in divergent zone, retention zone in LC vortex and region between upwelling and downwelling zones. Similarly, LC are found to have higher windward surface current in convergent zones due to jet like flow. This faster moving convergent region in water surface can enhance the transport of organisms and materials in the direction of wind.