Collaborative Research: Cross-shelf Transport and Alongshelf Exchange Processes in Regions of Multiple Mesoscale Fronts

将开展实地方案，检查与哈特拉斯角附近的哈特拉斯锋面及其近端锋面有关的环流和密度场。主要的观测战略将是部署两艘配备ADCP、起伏CTD传感器和表面测绘CT传感器的考察船，以获取锋面上重复的高分辨率垂直剖面和水平速度和密度表面场。此外，一组相对简单的测量将对锋面及其附近的垂直涡旋扩散系数进行现场估计。计划举办一次夏季和冬季邮轮，以应对季节性变化。这项实验将提供与跨陆架定向中尺度锋面有关的环流和密度场以及类似尺度的近距离锋面之间相互作用的重要新信息。这类锋面可在沿海海域的岸上和向海跨陆架运输中发挥中心作用。这些测量将探索与哈特拉斯锋面有关的具体输送机制，该区域是一个离岸出口和相当大的岸上输送特别活跃的区域，并可对锋面环流特征进行动态分析。此外，还将确定空间和时间相关尺度，并估计与锋面相关的垂直涡旋粘度的大小，从而为这一海洋复杂区域未来的建模工作提供重要信息。所获得的见解将与大陆架物质、营养物质和体积平衡的研究，对商业上重要的陆架产卵和依赖河口的物种的生活史研究，以及减少哈特拉斯角附近与商业捕捞有关的海洋哺乳动物死亡率的努力有关。这项研究的结果将通过在国家会议上的陈述和在被引用的期刊上发表的文章，通过科学界传播。两名研究生和一名本科生将参与支持计划中的实地工作。通过萨维奇博士继续参与国家海洋科学碗(National Ocean Science Bowl)，这是由海洋研究和教育联盟(CORE)组织的一项针对高中生的问答比赛，以及加瓦基维奇博士参与他所在的当地科学和数学磁石小学(他是该学校的董事会成员)，也将有可能接触到K-12社区。

A field program will be conducted to examine the circulation and density fields associated with the Hatteras Front and its proximate fronts near Cape Hatteras. The primary observational strategy will be to deploy two research vessels equipped with ADCP, undulating-CTD sensors, and surface mapping CT sensors, to acquire repeated high resolution vertical sections and horizontal surface fields of velocity and density across the fronts. In addition, a relatively simple set of measurements will render in situ estimates of vertical eddy diffusion coefficients in and near the fronts. A summer and a winter cruise are planned to address seasonal variability. This experiment will provide important new information on the circulation and density fields associated with cross-shelf oriented mesoscale fronts and on interactions between proximate fronts of similar scale. Such fronts may play a central role in shoreward and seaward cross-shelf transport in the coastal ocean. These measurements will explore specific transport mechanisms associated with the Hatteras Front in a particularly energetic region of high off-shelf export and considerable shoreward transport, and permit a dynamical analysis of frontal circulation features. In addition, spatial and temporal correlation scales will be defined, and the magnitude of vertical eddy viscosity associated with the fronts will be estimated, thereby substantially informing future modeling efforts of this oceanographically complex region.The insights gained will be pertinent to studies of material, nutrient, and volume budgets on the continental shelf, to life-history studies of commercially important shelf-spawning, estuarine-dependent species, and to efforts to mitigate commercial fishing-related mortality of marine mammals near Cape Hatteras. The findings of this study will be disseminated through the scientific community through presentations at national meetings and articles published in refereed journals. Two graduate students and one undergraduate will participate in support of the planned field-work. Outreach to the K-12 community will also be possible, through Dr. Savidge's continuing involvement in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, a question and answer contest for high-schoolers organized by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), and by Dr. Garwarkiewicz's involvement with his local Science and Math magnet elementary school, on whose Board of Directors he sits.