Collaborative Research: Topography, Boundary Currents and the Submesoscale

该项目通过在两个不同的数值模式（ROMS和麻省理工学院的大气环流模式）中使用高分辨率嵌套实验，解决海洋中尺度平衡流的消散问题。这项工作具体解决了产生sumesosscale，非地转流的中尺度与地形的相互作用，明确解决了相关的水平尺度为0.1-10公里。将设计数值模拟来计算能量、涡度拟能和示踪剂方差的级联，并与理论进行比较，这些理论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区域进行，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强有力的测试。人们希望，这项工作将导致新的理解的次中尺度制度，动态连接平衡和不平衡的流量，甚至可能导致新的参数化，可用于代表这些过程中的海洋和气候模式。

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.