Collaborative Research: Does Topography Control Mesocale Dissipation?

近几年来，海洋次表层的湍流机械能收支受到了广泛的关注，因为它是理解全球输送带环流的关键。 然而，在机械能收支中存在耗散危机。 能量被馈送到系统，然后通过调用涡流粘度（其形式和值首先由计算稳定性约束决定）来耗散。基本的海洋学措施，如涡动动能，由这些参数化，中尺度耗散的影响是深远的。 这包括尿布热和示踪剂通量。为了帮助澄清中尺度能量损失的局限性的问题，参数化需要从物理方法和模式计算。 在这项研究中，罗得岛大学、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以及地形迫使能量级联向更小尺度的内部中尺度耗散机制。科学家小组将对涡旋和海山之间的相互作用进行高分辨率原始方程和非流体静力学模型模拟，作为地形引起的失去平衡和耗散的原型，并进行分析。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是重要的控制中尺度，主要是通过催化从平衡到不平衡的电流转移。 如果是真的，这些信息将影响海洋次网格尺度参数化，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，FSU和UCLA科学家之间的合作。研究结果将提交给期刊，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.