The North Brazil Current Rings Experiment: Data Analysis and Synthesis

摘要PI/机构：Johns / RSMAS 提案编号：OCE-0241430 1998-2000年期间，一个小组进行了北巴西海流环实验（NBCRE）。该计划首次全面观测了北巴西海流（NBC）的回折、NBC环的形成过程以及NBC环沿西部边界向西北沿着平移时的物理结构和性质。NBCRE的目标是了解NBC环生成的过程，并量化NBC环在大西洋纬向翻转环流（MOC）内跨赤道和跨环流输送中的作用。该提案要求支持NBCRE计划期间收集的数据的分析和综合。其余的分析和综合任务已由主要调查人员组织完成，本提案要求支持迈阿密PI完成对船上ADCP数据和CTD/LADCP站数据的综合，这些数据是在四次航行到该区域时收集的，以及来自海流计系泊和部署在核生化环形成区域的反向回声测深仪的数据。来自该地区的卫星测高和表面漂移和浮子的结果（包括我们的WHOI同事作为项目的一部分发射的一些结果）以及MICOM模拟的模型结果也将被纳入合作分析。这项建议的具体目标是：记录了在四次研究航行中观察到的NBC回折和大规模西部边界流系统的三维结构，提供了NBC回折的时间变化和从回折中分离环所涉及的物理过程的全面描述，包括上游NBC变化和可能的远程影响，并确定与NBC分离后环的物理结构和水团特性，以及它们捕获并向北输送到亚热带北大西洋的南大西洋水量。一旦完成，这种综合将提供一个大大提高理解的现象NBC环脱落和这些功能的意义，北大西洋环流。除了增加我们对星环的物理知识外，该综合报告还将作为该区域未来模型评估和基于模型的过程研究的基线。

ABSTRACTPI/Institution: Johns / RSMAS Proposal No: OCE-0241430During 1998-2000 a team of conducted the North Brazil Current Rings Experiment (NBCRE). This program obtained the first comprehensive observations of the North Brazil Current (NBC) retroflection, the NBC ring formation process, and the physical structure and properties of NBC rings as they translate northwestward along the western boundary. The goal of the NBCRE is to understand the process of NBC ring generation and to quantify the role of NBC rings in cross-equatorial and cross-gyre transport within the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC). This proposal requests support for analysis and synthesis of the data collected during NBCRE program. The remaining analysis and synthesis tasks have been organized among the principal investigators and this proposal requests support for the Miami PI's to complete the synthesis of the shipboard ADCP data and CTD/LADCP station data collected on four cruises to the region as well as data from current meter moorings and inverted echo sounders deployed in the area of NBC ring formation. Results from satellite altimetry and surface drifters and floats available in the region (including some launched by our WHOI colleagues as part of the project), and model results from MICOM simulations, will be also be included in the collaborative analysis. The specific objectives of this proposal are to: document the 3-D structure of the NBC retroflection and the large- scale western boundary current system observed during the four research cruises, provide a thorough description of the temporal variability of the NBC retroflection and the physical processes involved in the separation of rings from the retroflection, including upstream NBC variability and possible remote influences, and determine the physical structure and watermass properties of the rings after separation from the NBC and the volume of South Atlantic water they trap and transport northward into the subtropical North Atlantic. Once completed, this synthesis will provide a vastly improved understanding of the phenomenology of NBC ring shedding and the significance of these features to the North Atlantic circulation. In addition to increasing our physical knowledge of the rings, the synthesis will serve as a baseline for future model evaluations and model-based process studies in the region.