A near‐inertial wave stalling and breaking in a critical layer was observed for a week by a pair of autonomous velocity and density profilers on concentric paths in an ocean mesoscale eddy. Profiler observations provide estimates of the eddy's vertical vorticity and shear, quantities needed to test theories of downward near‐inertial wave (NIW) energy flux and loss from inertial wave–eddy interactions. The unique observations of the wave's intrinsic frequency and vertical wavenumber m provide a novel estimate of the vertical group velocity C_gz from changes in with respect to m. Shear, strain, energy flux convergence, and parameterized turbulence are all elevated near 140 m depth, near the bottom of the strongest eddy velocities. Our observations are consistent with a downgoing NIW's group velocity decreasing owing to wave–eddy interactions, providing important clues on global energetics of NIW mixing.

中文翻译：

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反气旋海洋涡流中近惯性波（NIW）的失速和耗散：群速度的直接确定及与理论的比较

在海洋中尺度涡旋的同心路径上，一对自主速度和密度剖面仪观测到了一个接近惯性的波在临界层的失速和破裂，持续了一周。Profiler的观测值提供了对涡旋垂直涡度和剪切力，估计向下近惯性波（NIW）能量通量理论以及惯性波涡旋相互作用损失所需量的估计。对波的固有频率和垂直波数m的独特观察提供了一个相对于m的变化对垂直群速度C _gz的新颖估计。剪切，应变，能量通量收敛和参数化湍流都在140 m深度附近（最强涡流速度的底部附近）升高。我们的观察结果与由于波涡相互作用而导致NIW的群速度下降是一致的，这为NIW混合的整体能量学提供了重要的线索。