Microstructure

Microturbulence refers to tiny, chaotic swirls and mixing that happen in the ocean at very small scales—often just a few millimeters to centimeters across. Even though it’s small, this mixing is super important because it helps move heat, salt, oxygen, and nutrients around in the water. This kind of mixing helps regulate the temperature of the ocean, affects how nutrients get to plankton (which are at the base of the food chain), and plays a role in how the ocean and atmosphere exchange heat—something that directly impacts weather and climate. The most well-known and widely used sensor for measuring this is the Microrider and is designed to measure oceanic microturbulence by capturing fine-scale variations in velocity shear and temperature. Equipped with airfoil shear probes, fast-response thermistors, pressure sensors and accelerometers.