Collaborative Research: The Effect of Submesoscale Processes on Property Fluxes and Distributions in the Upper Ocean

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ABSTRACTOCE-0623513Vertical transport between the sea surface and the interior of the ocean is instrumental in a variety of processes including the supply of nutrients for plankton production as well as the exchanges of gases, heat and momentum with the atmosphere. The mechanisms that control these properties is a long-standing question on our understanding of the upper ocean. Features on the order of one kilometer ( as scale known as the submesoscale) play an important role in these processes. In this study, scientists from Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, will use a high-resolution numerical model of an upper ocean front, in order to explore the dynamics of these features and their effects on vertical transport, mixing and the distribution of properties. They have three hypotheses: 1) in the presence of horizontal density gradients and wind stress, submesoscale instabilities generate intense vertical velocities; 2) these processes thus enhance nutrient supply and the exchange of dissolved gases with the atmosphere; 3) regions of high strain (in which filaments of properties such as a nutrients are stretched and stirred) are also regions of localized intense vertical motions. This project will further our understanding of submesoscale processes, an area of great current interest in physical oceanography. Its focus on how these processes impact passive tracers is particularly innovative because it has the potential to broadly impact other disciplines.