Collaborative Research: Interaction of Eddies with Mixed Layers

0612157这个气候模拟和过程小组的主要目标是制定和测试IPCC级气候模式参数化的涡动输送和附近的表面边界层。资料和极高分辨率数值模式的组合已被用来研究海洋上层的涡动动力学。利用这一机构的工作，参数化方案中尺度涡输送在非绝热近地层和参数化方案的约束驱动的次中尺度涡已制定和实施的社区气候模式。它们对海洋的平均状态有很大的影响，特别是在接近表面的地方。这些修改可能意味着气候敏感性耦合模式通过对海气交换的影响。一些耦合气候模式的影响将进行调查。具体而言，这次更新将完成以下领域的工作：完成NCAR、GFDL和MIT海洋气候模式中新参数化的实施，并研究它们对海洋-大气耦合模式的影响。将模式输出与根据全球数据集和今后三年海洋学实地活动将提供的新数据估计的涡流统计数据进行比较。完成海洋上层中尺度-次中尺度相互作用的过程研究，特别强调抑制、风强迫和锋生的作用。修改新的参数化，以解释该团队最近才揭示的上层海洋物理学的新方面。我们对地球气候系统的了解很大程度上取决于我们对物理过程的理解以及这些过程在数值模型中的整合。该项目将继续在上层海洋物理学、改进气候模型中的物理学以及了解气候对上层海洋过程的敏感性方面取得根本性进展。拟议的研究有许多更广泛的影响。最明显的是，气候对人类状况有着巨大的影响，该项目直接侧重于改进模拟和试图预测气候和气候变化的气候模型中的海洋部分。两名年轻科学家和三名博士后（该领域最有前途的人才）将接受气候研究和海洋建模领域的培训。该小组还积极参加一些外联活动，并每年举行讲习班，传播早期成果。在重大科学会议上组织了关于涡流-混合层相互作用的特别会议，并建立了一个网站（http：//cpt-emilie.org/），宣传正在进行的研究和讲习班活动，该项目是对美国气候变化和可预测性方案的贡献。

0612157The main goal of on this Climate Modeling and Process team is to formulate and test in IPCC-class climate models parameterizations for the eddy transport in and near the surface boundary layer. A combination of data and very high resolution numerical models has been used to investigate eddy dynamics in the upper ocean. Using this body of work, a parameterization scheme for mesoscale eddy transport in the diabatic surface layer and a parameterization scheme for restratification driven by submesoscale eddies have been formulated and implemented in the community climate models. They show a large impact on the oceanic mean state, especially close to the surface. These modifications are likely to imply climate sensitivity in coupled models through the impact on air-sea exchange. Some of the implications for coupled climate models will be investigated. Specifically, this renewal will complete work in the following areas:. completing the implementation of the new parameterizations in the ocean climate models at NCAR, GFDL, and MIT and studying their impact in coupled ocean-atmosphere models, . comparing model outputs versus eddy statistics estimated from global data sets and from new data that will become available over the next three years from the oceanographic field campaigns,. completing the process studies of mesoscale-submesoscale interactions in the upper ocean with specialemphasis on the roles of restratification, wind forcing, and frontogenesis,. modifying the new parameterizations to account for new aspects of upper ocean physics only recently revealed by the team.Intellectual merit. Our knowledge of the Earth's climate system depends largely on our understandingof physical processes and integration of those processes in numerical models. The project will continuemaking fundamental progress in upper ocean physics, in improving physics in climate models, and inunderstanding the sensitivity of climate to upper ocean processes.Broader impacts. The proposed research has many broader implications. Most obviously, climate has an enormous impact on the human condition, and the project is directly focused on improving the ocean component of the climate models that simulate and attempt to predict climate and climate change. Two young scientists and three postdocs (among the most promising talents in the field) will be trained in the area of climate research and ocean modeling. The team has also been active in a number of outreach activities and meets for yearly workshops to disseminate early results. Special sessions on Eddy-Mixed Layer Interactions has been organized at major scientific meeting and a web-site (http://cpt-emilie.org/) was created to advertise the research under way and workshop activities.This project is a contribution to the U.S. CLIVAR (CLImate VARiability and predictability) program.