Collaborative Research: Topography, Boundary Currents and the Submesoscale

本项目通过在两种不同的数值模式（ROMS和MIT环流模式）中使用高分辨率嵌套实验来解决海洋中尺度平衡流的耗散问题。通过明确地解析水平方向上0.1-10 km的相关尺度，研究了中尺度与地形相互作用产生的中尺度地转流。将设计数值模拟来计算能量、熵和示踪剂方差的级联，并与理论进行比较，这也将在项目范围内得到发展和改进。高分辨率模拟将在黑潮地区进行，那里强烈的地形特征和西部边界流动力学将允许对假设进行稳健的测试。希望这项工作将导致对亚中尺度制度的新理解，连接平衡和不平衡流动的动力学，甚至可能导致新的参数化，可用于在海洋和气候模式中表示这些过程。

This project addresses the dissipation of mesoscale, balanced flow in the ocean through the use of high resolution nesting experiments in two different numerical models (ROMS and the MIT general circulation model). The work specifically addresses the generation of sumesoscale, ageostrophic flows by mesoscale interactions with topography by explicitly resolving the relevant scales of 0.1-10 km in the horizontal. Numerical simulations will be designed to calculate the cascades of energy, enstrophy, and tracer variance and compare with theories, which will also be developed and improved within the scope of the project. The high resolution simulations will be performed in the Kuroshio region where strong topographic features and the the western boundary current dynamics will allow robust testing of the hypotheses. It is hoped that the work will lead to new understandings of the submesoscale regime, the dynamics that connect balance and unbalanced flows, and perhaps even lead to new parameterizations which can be used to represent these processes in ocean and climate models.