Eddies, mixing and recent climate change

涡流、混合和最近的气候变化

• 批准号: 1397-2007
• 负责人: Greatbatch, Richard
• 金额: $ 1.79万
• 依托单位: Dalhousie University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=388449
• 关键词: Eddies; mixing; recent; climate; change; Eddies; mixing; recent; climate; change

To assess the future impact of man's activities on the climate system, we need to run climate prediction models. These models depend heavily on processes that cannot be resolved explicitly, either because the computer power is simply not available, or because the models would be too complex, making it impossible to judge their reliability. An example is the representation of clouds. It is almost impossible to imagine representing the physics of each cloud explicitly in a model, yet clouds are known to play a fundamental role in the Earth's radiation balance. Here we are concerned with the representation of unresolved processes in the ocean; in particular time dependent fluctuations ("eddies") with spatial scales from kilometres to tens of kilometres. Our ability to represent eddies in climate models is currently quite limited, yet we are beginning to realise the fundamental role played by eddies in the budgets of heat, freshwater, carbon and other tracers, issues central to the climate change problem. The proposed research is aimed at improving the ability of climate models to represent the effect of eddies, building on our past work in this field. We also address the issue of recent climate change in an attempt to unravel the role played by the tropical oceans and the upper atmosphere (e.g. the stratosphere) within the context of the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These activities combined should lead to improvements in our ability to predict future climate, and the likely impact of climate change as it affects Canadians.

为了评估人类活动对气候系统的未来影响，我们需要运行气候预测模型。这些模型在很大程度上取决于无法明确解决的过程，要么是因为计算机功率根本不可用，要么是因为模型太复杂了，因此无法判断其可靠性。一个例子是云的表示。几乎不可能想象在模型中明确表示每个云的物理学，但是众所周知，云在地球的辐射平衡中起着基本作用。在这里，我们关心的是海洋未解决的过程的代表。在特定的时间上，依赖时间的波动（“涡流”），空间尺度从公里到数十公里。我们目前在气候模型中代表涡流的能力非常有限，但是我们开始意识到涡流在热，淡水，碳和其他示踪剂的预算中所扮演的基本角色，这是气候变化问题的核心。拟议的研究旨在提高气候模型代表涡流的能力，这对我们过去在该领域的工作为基础。我们还解决了最近气候变化的问题，试图揭示在大气中温室气体浓度不断增加的背景下，热带海洋和高层大气（例如平流层）所起的作用。这些活动结合起来，应提高我们预测未来气候的能力，以及随着气候变化影响加拿大人的可能影响。