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 Leaman博士与伙伴项目。华盛顿大学的S.Riser和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的R. Schmitt，大约145个剖面P-ALACE（剖面自主拉格朗日和环流探测器）浮标（其中至少一半具有盐度）将被用来研究热带和亚热带大西洋特定的水团转化过程，作为大西洋环流和气候实验（ACCE）的一部分。全流域网格将用于提供相对均匀的采样，以跟踪整个盆地上层盐度和热含量的变化。更高分辨率的阵列将部署在重要的局部区域，如高盐度的副热带水下（Leaman）、相对均匀的18度水（Riser）形成或转化的水团，或重要的海气交换高度变化的地方，如ITCZ（热带辐合带）（R. Schmitt）。更高的分辨率将使我们能够跟踪上层海洋特征的体积和结构的季节性和年际变化，并将这些变化与模拟/观测到的地表热量和淡水通量的估计联系起来。对这些数据的分析将提供在ACCE现场试验期间热带和亚热带环流1500米以上的速度、温度和盐度场的时间序列三维地图。此外，除了通量估计外，统计分析还将提供平均环流和涡旋动能和势能以及涡旋混合等量的空间分布。这些环流范围的估计将为未来的气候模式提供强有力的约束，这些模式必须开发，以充分包括热带和亚热带大西洋的物理，特别是淡水预算。＊＊＊

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. ***