Collaborative Research: Does Topography Control Mesocale Dissipation?

次表层海洋的湍动机械能收支最近受到了相当大的关注，因为它是理解全球输送带环流的关键。然而，机械能收支存在耗散危机。能量被提供给系统，然后通过调用涡流粘度(涡流粘度的形式和值首先由计算稳定性约束决定)来耗散。基本的海洋测量，如涡动能，是由这些参数决定的，中尺度耗散的影响是深远的。这包括日平均热量和示踪通量。为了帮助澄清围绕中尺度能量损失限制的问题，需要从物理方法和模式计算中发展参数化。在这项研究中，罗德岛大学、佛罗里达州立大学和加州大学洛杉矶分校的研究人员将计算边界耗散的能量损失、地形诱导的不平衡流动以及地形强迫向前能量级联到较小尺度所导致的内部中尺度耗散机制。科学家团队将对涡旋和海山相互作用的高分辨率原始方程和非静力模型进行模拟和分析，以此作为地形引起的失去平衡和消散的原型。主要工具将是分析和过程数值模型。从这项工作中收集的结果将评论他们的假设的可行性，即中尺度和地形之间的相互作用在控制中尺度上是重要的，主要是通过催化从平衡气流到不平衡气流的转移。如果为真，该信息将影响海洋子网格尺度的参数化，从底部边界层到内部混合。除了这项工作的智力价值外，这项研究还将培养一名研究生，并促进URI、佛罗里达州立大学和加州大学洛杉矶分校科学家之间的合作。这些成果将发表在期刊上，并在国家和国际科学会议和研讨会上发表。

The turbulent mechanical energy budget of the subsurface ocean has recently received considerable attention because it is key to understanding the global conveyor circulation. However, there exists a dissipation crisis in the mechanical energy budget. Energy is fed to the system and then dissipated by invoking eddy viscosities (the forms and values for which are dictated first and foremost by computational stability constraints). Essential oceanographic measures, like eddy kinetic energy, are determined by these parameterizations, and the implications of mesoscale dissipation are far reaching. This includes including diapycnal heat and tracer fluxes. To help clarify the issues surrounding the limitations of mesoscale energy loss, the parameterizations need to be developed from physical approaches and model calculations. In this study, researchers at the University of Rhode Island, Florida State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles will compute the energy losses to boundary dissipation, topographically induced unbalanced flows, and internal mesoscale dissipative mechanisms resulting from a topographically forced forward energy cascade to smaller scales. The team of scientists will conduct and analyze fine resolution primitive equation and non-hydrostatic model simulations of interactions of vortices and seamounts as a prototype for topographically induced loss-of-balance and dissipation. The principal tools will be analytical and process numerical models. The results gathered from this work will comment on the viability of their hypothesis that the interaction between the mesoscale and topography is important in controlling the mesoscale, principally through catalyzing transfers from balanced to unbalanced currents. If true, this information will impact the ocean sub-grid scale parameterization, from bottom boundary layers to interior mixing. In addition to the intellectual merit of the work, the research will train a graduate student and promote cooperation between scientists at URI, FSU, and UCLA. The results will be refereed to journals and presented at national and international scientific meetings and in seminars.