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

将进行一个实地项目，以检查与哈特拉斯锋及其在哈特拉斯角附近的邻近锋有关的环流和密度场。主要观测策略将是部署两艘配备ADCP、波动ctd传感器和地表测绘CT传感器的研究船，以获取锋面上速度和密度的重复高分辨率垂直剖面和水平表面场。此外，一组相对简单的测量将提供在锋面内和锋面附近的垂直涡旋扩散系数的现场估计。为了解决季节变化问题，计划在夏季和冬季分别进行一次巡航。该实验将为研究跨陆架导向的中尺度锋的环流和密度场以及类似尺度的近锋之间的相互作用提供重要的新信息。这种锋面可能在沿海海洋的滨向和向海跨大陆架运输中起中心作用。这些测量将探索与哈特拉斯锋面相关的特定运输机制，该锋面位于一个特别有能量的高离架出口和相当大的沿岸运输区域，并允许对锋面环流特征进行动力学分析。此外，将定义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，从而为该海洋复杂区域的未来建模工作提供实质性信息。所获得的见解将与大陆架上的物质、营养和体积预算的研究有关，与商业上重要的大陆架产卵、河口依赖物种的生活史研究有关，并有助于减轻哈特拉斯角附近与商业捕鱼有关的海洋哺乳动物死亡率。这项研究的结果将通过在国家会议上的报告和在评审期刊上发表的文章在科学界传播。两名研究生和一名本科生将参与支持计划的实地工作。通过萨维奇博士继续参与由海洋学研究与教育联盟（CORE）组织的面向高中生的国家海洋科学竞赛（National Ocean Sciences Bowl），以及加瓦凯维奇博士与他所在的当地科学与数学吸引人的小学（Garwarkiewicz博士是该小学董事会成员）的合作，向K-12社区推广也将成为可能。

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.