Collaborative Research: Subsurface Float Observations in the Upper Layers of the Tropical and Subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. A Component of the WOCE/ACCE Program

9529794利曼与华盛顿大学的S.Riser博士和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的R.Schmitt博士的伙伴项目一起，将使用大约145个剖面自主拉格朗日和环流探测器(P-ALACE)浮标(其中至少一半具有盐度)作为大西洋环流和气候实验的一部分，用于研究热带和亚热带大西洋的特定水团转化过程。整个盆地的网格将被用来提供相对均匀的采样，以跟踪整个盆地上层盐度和热量的变化。高分辨率阵列将部署在形成或转化高盐度副热带水下(Leaman)、相对均匀的18度水(Riser)等水团的重要地方，或重要的海-气交换高度可变的地方，如热带间辐合区(R.Schmitt)。较高的分辨率将能够跟踪上层海洋地物的体积和结构的季节性和年际变化，并将这些变化与对地表热量和淡水通量的模拟/观测估计联系起来。对这些数据的分析将提供在ACCE现场实验期间热带和副热带涡旋上部1500米内的速度、温度和盐度场的时间序列图。此外，统计分析将提供平均环流和数量的空间分布，如涡动能和势能，以及涡旋混合，此外还有通量估计。这些环流范围的估计将为未来的气候模式提供强有力的制约，必须发展这些模式，以充分包括热带和亚热带大西洋的物理，特别是淡水收支。***

9529794 Leaman In conjunction with companion projects by Drs. S.Riser of the University of Washington and R. Schmitt of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, approximately 145 profiling P-ALACE (Profiling Autonomous Lagrangian and Circulation Explorer) floats (at least half of them with salinity) will be used to study specific water-mass transformation processes in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic as part of the Atlantic Circulation and Climate Experiment (ACCE). The basin-wide grid will be used to provide relatively uniform sampling to track upper layer salinity and heat content changes throughout the basin. Higher resolution arrays will be deployed in important local regions where water masses such as the high-salinity Subtropical Underwater (Leaman), relatively uniform 18-degree water (Riser) are formed or transformed, or where important air-sea exchanges are highly variable such as under the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone) (R. Schmitt). The higher-resolution will allow tracking of seasonal and interannual changes in the volume and structure of the upper ocean features, and relate these to modeled/observed estimates of surface heat and fresh water fluxes. Analysis of these data will provide time series of three- dimensional maps of the velocity, temperature, and salinity fields within the upper 1500 m of the tropical and subtropical gyres over the duration of the ACCE field experiment. Additionally, statistical analyses will provide spatial distributions of mean circulation and quantities like eddy kinetic and potential energies, and eddy mixing, in addition to the flux estimates. These gyre-wide estimates will provide strong constraints for the future climate models that must be developed to adequately include the physics of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, particularly the fresh water budget. ***