SGER: Exploration of a Tracer Patch in the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea

在热带大西洋和加勒比海探索示踪器斑块。Ledwell WHO建议对2001年在热带大西洋和加勒比海发布的示踪剂斑块进行采样。抽样的主要目标是量化示踪剂在热带大西洋令人惊讶的巨大纬向扩散，并测量加勒比海跃层中示踪剂的昼夜扩散率，那里对盐指法的敏感性几乎与巴巴多斯以东一样大，但那里的温盐阶梯很少。其他重要目标是确定巴巴多斯以东阶梯区域示踪剂分布明显下沉的性质，对那里的逐日扩散系数进行两年测量，并确定示踪剂斑块两年后向西的范围。对大西洋和加勒比海纬向弥散的探索将提供独特的数据，用于比较海洋环流模型，并可能有助于增进对副热带锋切变的了解。加勒比地区日平均扩散率的测量将改善作为密度比函数的混合的参数化，即作为具有高切变的盐指有利区域的温度和盐度梯度的函数。调查的性质在其所有目标上都是探索性的，此外，由于示踪剂补丁将以极快的速度在研究区域内扩散和席卷，因此对支助的请求在时间上是紧迫的。抽样工作应在2003年进行。

Exploration of a Tracer Patch in the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean SeaJ. LedwellWHOISampling of a tracer patch released in 2001 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea is proposed. The main goals of the sampling are to quantify the surprisingly large zonal dispersion of the tracer in the tropical Atlantic, and to measure the diapycnal diffusivity of the tracer in the pycnocline of the Caribbean, where susceptibility to salt fingering is nearly as great as east of Barbados, but where thermohaline staircases are rare. Other important goals are to determine the nature of the apparent sinking of the tracer distribution in the staircase region east of Barbados, to obtain a 2-year measurement of the diapycnal diffusivity there, and to determine the westward extent of the tracer patch at 2 years. Exploration of zonal dispersion in both the Atlantic and Caribbean will provide unique data with which to compare models of ocean circulation, and may help to improve knowledge of shear across the subtropical front. Measurement of diapycnal diffusivity in the Caribbean will improve parameterizations of mixing as a function of density ratio, i.e., as a function of temperature and salinity gradients, in salt-finger favorable regions with high shear. The nature of the survey is exploratory in all of its goals, and furthermore, the request for support is temporally urgent because of the speed with which the tracer patch will spread and be swept through the region of the study. Sampling should be done in 2003.