Collaborative Research: What do global surface drifters tell us about submesoscale processes?

合作研究：全球地表漂流物告诉我们有关亚尺度过程的什么信息？

• 批准号: 0850690
• 负责人: Christopher Edwards
• 金额: $ 25.18万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-01 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0850690&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; What; do; global

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).A recent global census of surface loopers (drifter trajectories with a definite sense of rotation) has revealed some unexpected features of the distribution of structures at scales of the submesoscale (R15 km; Griffa, Lumpkin, and Veneziani 2008). Three main regimes have emerged: a) a prevalently cyclonic zonal band at 10−20 degrees latitude; b) a prevalently anticyclonic zonal band at 30−40 degrees and c) regions devoid of submesoscale presence corresponding to areas of formation of great rings. The dynamical mechanisms behind this distribution are not completely understood yet, one of the reasons being that small loopers can be the signature of different processes, such as submesoscale eddies and subinertial Ekman response.This study focuses on the submesoscale component, and investigates the implications of the findings for submesoscale distribution in the open ocean. The question to be addressed is: Are submesoscale processes in the world ocean characterized by a nontrivial distribution in terms of polarity and abundance, modulated by the ambient large-scale dynamical regimes in which they form? This question cannot be investigated by means of Lagrangian data alone, and other global data sets or global numerical models do not have sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to solve submesoscale structures. Therefore very high resolution (up to 300 m) regional models of key selected areas suggested by the drifters will be used to investigate the Eulerian and Lagrangian dynamics. This will be complemented by specific process studies in idealized configurations indicated by the regional modeling results. The overall result will be an increased understanding of the properties and distribution of open ocean submesoscale processes.The proposed research has a societal impact because it contributes to the understanding of climate and biological processes in the upper ocean. The results will be presented in graduate classes at UCSC and RSMAS, and they will be part of outreach programs. Analysis algorithms developed for the ROMS model simulations will be freely distributed to the greater scientific community through the WikiROMS web-pages.

该奖项根据《2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案》（公法 111-5）提供资金。最近的一项全球地表循环普查（具有明确旋转意义的漂移轨迹）揭示了大规模结构分布的一些意想不到的特征亚介尺度（R15 km；Griffa、Lumpkin 和 Veneziani 2008）。出现了三种主要的区域： a) 纬度 10-20 度处普遍存在气旋性地带带； b) 30-40 度处普遍存在的反气旋纬向带；c) 没有与大环形成区域相对应的亚中尺度存在的区域。这种分布背后的动力学机制尚未完全了解，原因之一是小旋涡可能是不同过程的特征，例如亚介尺度涡流和亚惯性埃克曼响应。本研究重点关注亚介尺度成分，并研究了公海亚尺度分布的发现。要解决的问题是：世界海洋中的次尺度过程是否具有极性和丰度方面的非平凡分布特征，并受到它们形成的环境大尺度动力机制的调节？这个问题不能仅通过拉格朗日数据来研究，并且其他全局数据集或全局数值模型不具有足够的空间和时间分辨率来解决亚介尺度结构。因此，漂流者建议的关键选定区域的非常高分辨率（高达 300 m）区域模型将用于研究欧拉和拉格朗日动力学。这将通过区域建模结果表明的理想化配置中的具体过程研究来补充。总体结果将是加深对公海亚中尺度过程的特性和分布的了解。拟议的研究具有社会影响，因为它有助于了解上层海洋的气候和生物过程。研究结果将在 UCSC 和 RSMAS 的研究生班上公布，并且将成为外展计划的一部分。为 ROMS 模型模拟开发的分析算法将通过 WikiROMS 网页免费分发给更大的科学界。