A New Look at Old Data in the Gulf of Mexico

知识优势：该项目侧重于三个相关活动：第一，重新分析以前未公布的墨西哥湾西部系泊计划，其中包括六个系泊和AXBT航班；第二，分析尤卡坦海峡以前并不广为人知的一组系泊数据；第三，与数值模型师和SSH分析师合作，纳入墨西哥湾平均近地表流动的新结果。旧实验的设计和分析是基于这样的理解，即墨西哥湾是由环流和从环流中脱落的一个大反子环主导的。现代的理解是，海湾(和海洋的其余部分)基本上充满了大大小小的旋涡和两个星座的旋涡，以及与这里相关的地形罗斯比波。由于未能包括这种可能性，对旧实验的分析受到严重阻碍；目前的重新分析将能够包括自那以后出现的想法。包含现代思想的影响在尤卡坦海峡的数据中尤为明显，那里的工业-海军-墨西哥(深星)联合项目的测量显著改变了人们对水流模式的理解。将这一新的平均流理解纳入SSH地图和数值模式中可能是向前迈出的一大步，潜在的好处是为这些广泛使用的科学工具提供根本性的改进。广泛的影响：目前未发表的文件和S大师论文中的历史数据将被带到公开的出版文献中，并将被提供给更广泛的应用。墨西哥湾西部的实验包括大约350个消耗性温度曲线，这将在严重抽样不足的一段时间内为现有数据库增加大量数据。尤卡坦实验中的系泊数据以前根本没有在公开文献中看到过。墨西哥湾上游的热量收支对于理解飓风模型很重要。加强我们对上层流动以及海湾和加勒比海之间的深水交换的了解是这方面的一个关键环节，因为如果要平衡热量收支，就必须了解冷水深水的交换。最后，研究生将接受首席调查员的培训和指导，进行独立研究。

Intellectual merit: This project focus on three related activities: first, the reanalysis of a previously unpublished mooring program in the western Gulf of Mexico which included six moorings and AXBT flights; second, analysis of a set of mooring data in Yucatan Channel not previously known widely; and third, incorporation of new results of a mean near-surface flow in the Gulf in collaboration with numerical modelers and SSH analysts. The older experiments were designed and analyzed with the understanding that the Gulf was dominated by the Loop Current and a single large anticylonic ring shed from it. The modern understanding is that the Gulf (and the rest of the ocean) is essentially filled with eddies both small and large and of both signs, as well as with the topographic Rossby waves relevant here. Analyses of older experiments were seriously hampered by the failure to include such possibilities; the present reanalysis will be able to include ideas that have emerged since. The effects of including modern ideas is particularly evident with the data in Yucatan Channel, where the understanding of the flow pattern was changed markedly by the measurements of the joint industry-Navy-Mexico (Deep Star) program there. Incorporating this new mean-flow understanding into both SSH maps and numerical models could be a major step forward, with the potential merit of providing a fundamental improvement for these widely-used scientific tools.Broader impacts: Historical data currently in unpublished files and master?s theses will be brought out into the open, published literature and will be made available for much wider application. The western Gulf experiment included approximately 350 expendable temperature profiles, which will add a great deal to the existing database for a time period that was seriously under-sampled. Data for the moorings in the Yucatan experiment have not previously been seen at all in the open literature. The heat budget of the upper Gulf of Mexico is important for understanding hurricane models. Improving our understanding of the upper-layer flow and the deep water exchange between the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea is a crucial link in this, as the exchange of cold deep water has to be understood if the heat budget is to be balanced. Finally, a graduate student will be trained and mentored by the principal investigator in conducting independent research.