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

“该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助。”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年开始的努力，利用南极研究破冰者纳撒尼尔·B·帕尔默和劳伦斯·M·古尔德正在进行的分析能力。船载声学多普勒海流剖面仪(ADCP)能够获取、处理和存档上层海洋流速以及这些船只横断面所经过的南大洋水域的声后向散射信号的结构。南极绕极流的一个主要阻塞点--德雷克海峡(RVIB Gould)延长时间序列的重复巡航轨迹密度很高，有兴趣提供气候变化对偏远和未被观测的南大洋的影响的记录。全球环流模型表明，南大洋对气候变化很敏感，而且变暖的速度可能比全球海洋的其他部分快得多。大气环流的季节和年际变化，涡旋引起的交换与平均混合的平衡，德雷克通道的涡度平衡，以及在变化的气候条件下绕极风与地球的相互作用？S最大的洋流系统是这些测量揭示的一些基本问题。后向散射参数的变异性还可以作为浮游动物种群昼夜迁徙的综合信号，例如南极食物链的关键物种--大鳞水蚤。

"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.