Ice-Ocean Interactions on the Okhotsk Sea Shelf

鄂霍次克海通过影响北太平洋中间水(NPIW)的形成，在北太平洋环流中起着重要作用。此外，它拥有高度可变的海冰覆盖，这不仅影响着水团的形成，也影响着亚极地北太平洋的大气环流。鄂霍次克海陆架上形成的致密水是NPIW的来源，它严重依赖于沿海多尼娜和潮汐混合的细节，以及它们与层化和平均环流的关系。尽管最近的观察表明，海冰对卤水的排斥在大陆架上方的潮汐锋处下沉，但对于波尼亚开口、冰生产、海冰热交换和大陆架动力学之间的关系，仍然存在许多问题。学术价值：在这个项目中，华盛顿大学的海洋学家将利用区域冰-海洋耦合模型进行一系列敏感性实验，以调查海冰和水团的形成及其年际变化。除了将区域海洋模式系统(一个遵循沿海海洋地形的模式)和共同体海冰模式(一个复杂的动力-热力学海冰模式)相结合外，研究人员还将使用新的、高质量的数据集来进行模式强迫、初始化和验证。这项工作的成果将包括将现有数据与鄂霍次克海模型相结合，该模型还将考虑到该区域的重要海洋物理过程。还将分析该区域的热量和淡水收支，重点放在季节周期和年际变化上。模型中的致密水形成将被量化，并将测试模型对潮汐影响的敏感性。除了区域建模，研究人员还将利用共同体气候系统模型(CCSM，一种全球气候模型)在更大范围内分析鄂霍次克海的影响。区域海冰模式将被用来估计CCSM不存在的过程的重要性。更广泛的影响：这项工作的结果不仅将有助于更好地了解波利尼亚，而且还将有助于提高鄂霍次克海潜在的全球重要性。除了培训一名研究生外，这项工作还将与NCAR的社区气候系统模型项目建立伙伴关系。在区域范围内使用CCSM海冰模式将有助于CCSM的未来发展，因为新一代超级计算机允许进行更高分辨率的气候模拟。

0526011The Okhotsk Sea plays an important role in the North Pacific Ocean circulation through its influence on the formation of the North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW). In addition, it has a highly variable sea ice cover, which influences not only water mass formation, but also the atmospheric circulation over the sub-polar North Pacific. The dense water formed along the Okhotsk Sea shelves is the source of this NPIW and depends critically on the details of the coastal polynyas and tidal mixing, and their relation to the stratification and mean circulation. Though recent observations have shown that brine rejection from sea ice sinks at the tidal front over the shelves, many questions remain as to the relationship among polynya openings, ice production, ocean-ice heat exchange, and shelf dynamics. Intellectual merit:In this project, oceanographers at the University of Washington will perform a series of sensitivity experiments with a regional coupled ice-ocean model to investigate the sea ice and water mass formation and their inter-annual variability. In addition to coupling the Regional Ocean Model System, a terrain following coastal ocean model, and the Community Sea Ice Model, a sophisticated dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model, the researcher will also employ new, high quality datasets for model forcing, initialization, and verification. The outcomes of the work will include an integration of available data with a model of the Okhotsk Sea that will also take into account the important physical oceanographic processes in the region. An analysis of the heat and fresh water budgets of the region will also be made, focusing on both the seasonal cycle and inter-annual variability. The dense water formation in the model will be quantified, and the sensitivity of the model to the influence of tides will be tested. In addition to the regional modeling, the researcher will also analyze the influence of the Okhotsk Sea on a larger scale using the Community Climate System Model (CCSM, a global climate model). The regional ocean-ice model will be used to estimate the importance of processes that are absent from the CCSM. Broader Impacts:The results from this work will not only lead to an improved understanding of polynyas but also to the potential global importance of the Okhotsk Sea. In addition to training a graduate student, the work will also develop a partnership with the Community Climate System Model project at NCAR. The use of the CCSM sea-ice model in a regional context will help with future development of the CCSM as the new generation of super-computers allow for higher resolution climate simulations.