Impact of Irminger Rings on Deep Convection in the Labrador Sea

拉布拉多海位于北大西洋北部，这里的海水一直被来自加拿大北部的干燥寒冷的冬季风冷却。冷却后密度较大的“拉布拉多海水”下沉并在北大西洋及其他地区广泛扩散，从而将地球气候的变化“传达”给深海。一股带着温暖海水的洋流流入拉布拉多海，以平衡失去的热量，这就是伊明格洋流，但它主要局限于拉布拉多海的外围。偶尔，含有温暖边界水核心的涡流，被称为伊明格环，会断裂并漂移到拉布拉多海的内部区域。虽然有些漩涡的位置可以通过卫星上的仪器确定，但很少有实际的现场测量，可以确定它们在哪里以及如何将所载的温水沉积到公海中。要确定这些环对拉布拉多海热平衡的影响，就需要这些信息。新的伊明格环的原位测量将使用现有的和创新的技术相结合。从2007年开始，一个装有温度、盐度和电流传感器的深海系泊装置将在年轻的伊明格环的路径上部署两年，以观察它们最初的垂直和水平结构。根据卫星观测的涡流普查，预计将有大约12个新形成的伊明格环经过停泊地点。在同一系泊处将安装12个剖面浮子：每当涡流经过系泊处时，就会释放一个浮子。由于土星环强烈的旋转速度，这些浮标被困在涡流核心中，将在长达两年的时间里测量它们的水性质变化。这些观测将与卫星数据和其他现场测量相结合，以估计进入拉布拉多海内部的热通量，并验证数值模式的结果。这项研究将有助于气候科学和海洋学的发展。该项目涉及与加拿大海洋学家的合作，并将有助于国际科学思想的交流。通过与珀金斯盲人学校（Perkins School for the Blind）的试点项目，我们将为一群在地球科学领域代表性不足的学生提供教育体验。

The Labrador Sea, located in the northern North Atlantic Ocean, is a region where the ocean waters are consistently cooled by dry, cold winter winds coming from northern Canada. The cooled, and therefore dense "Labrador Sea Water" sinks and spreads widely throughout the North Atlantic and beyond, thereby "communicating" changes in the earth's climate to the deep ocean. A current carrying warmer waters flows into the Labrador Sea to balance this lost heat, the Irminger Current, but it is confined mainly to the periphery of the Labrador Sea. Occasionally, eddies containing a core of warm boundary current water, called Irminger Rings, break off and drift into the interior region of the Labrador Sea. Although the location of some of these eddies can be determined from satellite-borne instruments, there are very few actual in situ measurements of where and how they deposit their cargo of warm water into the open sea. Such information is needed to determine the impact of the rings on the heat balance of the Labrador Sea. New in situ measurements of Irminger Rings will be made using a combination of established and innovative technology. A deep-sea mooring with temperature, salinity and current sensors will be deployed in the path of young Irminger Rings for two years beginning in 2007 to observe their initial vertical and horizontal structure. It is anticipated that ~12 newly formed Irminger Rings will pass over the mooring site based on a census of eddies from satellite observations. Attached to the same mooring will be 12 profiling floats: one float will be released each time an eddy passes the mooring. Trapped in the eddy cores by the ring's strong swirling velocity, the floats will measure changes in their water properties for up to two years. These observations will be combined with satellite data and other in situ measurements to estimate the flux of heat into the interior Labrador Sea, and to verify results from numerical models.This research will contribute to the advancement of climate science as well as oceanography. The project involves collaboration with Canadian oceanographers and will contribute to international exchange of scientific ideas. Through a pilot program with the Perkins School for the Blind, we will provide an educational experience to a group of students typically underrepresented in the geosciences.