High-resolution velocity and hydrographic observations of the Drygalski Trough gravity plume

During the second cruise of the AnSlope project, the hydrography and velocity fields within a descending gravity plume in the northwestern Ross Sea Shelf area were sampled at high resolution. The observations give insights into small-scale fluctuations of the three-dimensional velocity field in and around the core of a strong gravity current, associated with peak velocities close to 2 m/s. There are two distinct layers of high acoustic backscatter (at 300 kHz) near the seabed associated with increased velocity variance and Richardson numbers near 0.25, suggesting that the high backscatter is caused by increased levels of turbulence resulting in increased acoustic Bragg scattering.