Near-inertial wave generation, propagation, and shoaling in a seasonally ice-covered ocean

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The PI proposes to leverage the ongoing ICORTAS (Ice-Covered Ocean Response to Atmospheric Storms) field observations by augmenting the existing scientific goals to include a modeling component that will capitalize on a model?s ability to resolve temporal and spatial fields, aiding in interpretation of the data. Specific new goals will be a focus on shoaling and dissipation of near-inertial wave groups as they are absorbed or scatter at the continental shelf break. The PI will use the fact that the study area, the Beaufort Sea shelf and slope, is seasonally ice-free to explore the impact that a changing ice cover may have on internal wave energy levels, both through changes in the efficiency of generation, and changes in under-ice dissipation. Simulations will be tightly linked to the field data, using measured upper ocean sea-ice drift and deformation, currents and remote sensing products. In particular, the study will address the following new questions:1) How much of the observed downward energy flux out of the ice-covered ocean reaches the continental slopes?2) Does the measured incoming energy flux accumulate at the shelf-break, which is critical to almost all internal waves in the Arctic?3) Is this energy accumulation sufficient to account for the implied mixing rates required to ventilate the abyssal Beaufort Sea?4) What are the relative efficiencies and damping rates of near-inertial waves subject to bottom, under-ice, open water, and critical slope reflections?