Sensitivity of Arctic Ocean Change to Background Mixing

华盛顿大学直接测量海洋混合是困难的，但几十年的研究表明，深层背景混合是内波能量耗散的结果。这种关系的确切性质是一个悬而未决的问题，但它使得从相对简单的内波能量观测推断混合成为可能。预计北极夏季无冰水域的增加将导致海洋内部波能的增加，并可能对海洋过程和气候产生意想不到的后果。该项目将使用新方法分析现有的海洋内波和混合数据，这些新方法在许多情况下尚未应用于北极环境。这项技术将在一名挪威科学家的合作实验中进行直接测量。他将利用现有的数据来研究混合波与内波的关系，以及内波能量与冰盖的关系。他还将对内波的能量学进行简单的研究，将现有的关于内波作用力的想法与新的冰模型结果结合起来。大尺度冰海模式的敏感性研究将探索在特定时空变化的背景混合下北冰洋模式的行为，以及冰混合对气候的正反馈的可能性。

Morison 0909408University of WashingtonDirect measurements of oceanic mixing are difficult, but decades of research suggest that deep background mixing is a consequence of dissipation of internal wave energy. The exact nature of this relationship is an open question, but it makes it possible to infer mixing from relatively simple observations of internal wave energy. The anticipated increase of summer ice-free waters in the Arctic should result in an increase in internal wave energy in the ocean and potentially unanticipated consequences for ocean processes and climate. The PI will analyze existing ocean data for internal waves and mixing using new methods, which in many cases have not been applied to the Arctic environment. The techniques will be tested against direct measurements of mixing done in an experiment by a collaborating Norwegian scientist. He will use existing data to examine the relation of mixing and internal waves and the relation of internal wave energy to the ice cover. He will also perform a simple study of the energetics of internal waves that combines existing ideas about the forcing of internal waves with new ice model results. Sensitivity studies with a large-scale ice ocean model will explore the Arctic Ocean model behavior under specified temporally and spatially varying background mixing and the potential for a positive ice-mixing feedback on climate.