Collaborative Research: AnSlope Analysis

这项合作研究将分析在为期三年的南极坡锋项目（“anslop”）中获得的南极海洋学数据集，该项目的目标是确定和量化控制密集的南极大陆架水向邻近深海的中层和深层转移的主要物理过程，以及跨越大陆架断裂的开放海洋水向极地的补偿性流动。研究活动将围绕：(i)全面描述罗斯海西北坡锋区域，包括坡锋的结构和密集陆架水的高能流出；（ii）详细研究锋面交换的动力学及其与环境强迫（海洋、海冰、大气）的关系。这项工作将评估源自不同陆架槽的密集外流下降的时空尺度；夹带、温压和底栖生物压力对流出物稀释、下降和扩散的作用；以及驱动大陆架侵入和跨等深线运动的主要机制。最终，以数据解释为指导的模式研究将促进全球海洋模式中跨坡交换参数化的发展。虽然起源于南极的冷水团对全球海洋环流和气候的重要性是毋庸置疑的，但这些水团进入深海环流的过程却并非如此。围绕南极洲的上大陆坡已被确定为陆架和深海水交换的主要门户。在这里，与几乎无处不在的锋面相关的地形、速度和密度场必须强烈地影响陆架和海洋状态之间水性质的平流和湍流转移。这个门户的强度和可变性对维持世界海洋的结构至关重要。

This collaborative study will analyze the antarctic oceanographic dataset obtained during the three-year Antarctic Slope Front Project ("AnSlope"), whose objective was to identify and quantify the principal physical processes governing the transfer of dense antarctic shelf waters into intermediate and deep layers of the adjacent deep ocean, and the compensatory poleward flow of open ocean waters across the shelf break. Research activities will be organized around: (i) a full description of the northwestern Ross Sea slope front region including the structure of the slope front and the energetic outflows of dense shelf water; and (ii) detailed study of the dynamics of cross-frontal exchange and their relationship to environmental forcing (ocean, sea ice, atmosphere). The work will evaluate the spatial and temporal scales of the descending dense outflows that originate in different shelf troughs; the roles of entrainment, thermobaricity, and benthic stress on the dilution, descent and spreading of the outflows; and the primary mechanisms driving on-shelf intrusions and cross-isobath motions. Ultimately, modeling studies guided by the data interpretation will facilitate the development of parameterizations of cross-slope exchanges in global ocean models.While the importance of cold water masses originating in the Antarctic to the global ocean circulation and climate is unquestioned, the processes by which these water masses enter the deep ocean circulation are not. The upper continental slope around Antarctica has been identified as the primary gateway for the exchange of shelf and deep ocean waters. Here the topography, velocity and density fields associated with the nearly ubiquitous front must strongly influence the advective and turbulent transfer of water properties between the shelf and oceanic regimes. The strength and variability of this gateway is critical in maintaining the structure of the world ocean.