Collaborative Research: Southern Ocean Current Observations from the U.S. Antarctic Research Vessels, 2010-14

“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”来自斯克里普斯海洋研究所（UCSD）和夏威夷大学的研究人员将继续1999年开始的工作，利用南极研究破冰船目前正在进行的分析能力，纳撒尼尔·B·帕尔默和劳伦斯·M·古尔德。船载声学多普勒电流剖面仪（ADCPs）可以采集、处理和存档上层洋流速度，以及这些船只在其横断面上经过的南大洋水域的声学后向散射信号结构。德雷克海峡（RVIB Gould）是南极绕极流（ACC）的一个主要阻塞点，其延长时间序列的高密度重复巡航轨迹有助于提供气候变化对遥远和未观测到的南大洋影响的记录。全球环流模型表明，南大洋对气候变化很敏感，可能比全球海洋的其他部分变暖得快得多。ACC的季节和年际变化、涡旋交换与平均洋流混合的平衡、德雷克通道的涡度平衡以及绕极风与地球的相互作用？在不断变化的气候条件下，美国最大的洋流系统是由这些测量提供的一些基本问题。后向散射参数的变异性还可以作为浮游动物种群（如南极食物链中的关键物种Euphausia superba）每日迁徙的积分信号。

"This Award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 0f 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Researchers from Scripps Inst of Oceanography (UCSD) and the University of Hawaii will continue an effort commenced in 1999 to use underway current profiling capabilities of the Antarctic Research Ice Breakers, Nathaniel B Palmer and Lawrence M Gould. Hull mounted shipboard acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) enable the acquisition, processing and archiving of upper ocean current velocities and also the structure of the acoustic backscatter signal of Southern Ocean waters through which these vessels ply their transects. The high density of the repeat cruise tracks of the lengthening time series in the Drake Passage (RVIB Gould), a major choke point of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), is of interest in providing a record of the effects of climate change in the remote and under observed Southern Ocean. Global circulation models suggest that the Southern Ocean is sensitive to climate change, and likely to warm much faster than other parts of the global ocean. Seasonal to interannual variability of the ACC, the balance of eddy induced exchange compared to mean current mixing, the vorticity balance of the Drake passage and the interaction of circumpolar winds with the planet?s largest ocean current system under changing climate regimes are some of the fundamental questions informed by these measurements. The variability of the backscattering parameter serves additionally as an integrating signal of diurnally migrating zooplankton populations such as Euphausia superba, a key Antarctic food chain species.