Ages of River Plumes and Freshened Coastal Waters Using Ra-224 and Ra-223

小行星9314587 该研究项目将使用短寿命镭同位素来确定淡水沃茨的年龄，因为这些沃茨从沿海地区移动和混合进入公海。 这些技术应能使海洋科学家在几天至几周的时间尺度上追踪沿海沃茨的流动和混合情况。这些研究将为沿海海洋与海洋和海洋内部的耦合提供重要信息。这些技术与其他研究相结合，将使海洋学家能够评估将淡水化沿海沃茨与海洋表面其他部分分开的密度梯度上的物质通量。 这项工作是基于一种新的测量技术，短寿命的Ra同位素，224 Ra（半衰期= 3.6天）和223 Ra（半衰期= 11.4天）。最初，大部分工作将用于技术开发和验证。 现场研究将确定（1）密西西比河的淡水化河流羽流侵入墨西哥湾的速率，以及（2）南大西洋湾内陆架区和中陆架区附近沿海沃茨的混合速率。

9314587 MOORE This research project will use short lived radium isotopes to determine the ages of freshened waters as these waters move and mix from the coastal zone into the open ocean. These techniques should enable marine scientists to tract the movement and mixing of coastal waters on time scales of a few days to several weeks. These studies will provide important information on the coupling between the coastal ocean and the ocean and the ocean interior. When combined with other studies, these techniques will enable oceanographers to assess fluxes of materials across the density gradient separating freshened coastal waters from the rest of the surface ocean. This work is based on a new measurement technique for short lived Ra isotopes, 224 Ra (half life = 3.6 days) and 223 Ra (half life = 11.4 days). Most of the effort will be devoted to technique development and verification initially. Field Studies will then determine (1) the rate at which the freshened river plume of the Mississippi River intrudes into the Gulf of Mexico and (2) the rate of mixing from near coastal waters across the inner and mid shelf region of the south Atlantic Bight.