Understanding Observed Equatorial Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean Interannual Flow Using Theory and High-Resolution ECCO2 Model Results

了解厄尔尼诺/南方涛动气候波动的基础是了解赤道太平洋表面的年际流动，这种流动使地表水平流并改变海面温度。从1992年底到现在，通过精确的卫星高度计测量的出现，我们现在有了估计海平面和表面洋流的长期记录，这些记录在空间上得到了很好的解决，不仅在太平洋，而且在印度洋和大西洋都有。这些记录足够长，可以用来研究观测到的年际地表流动及其动力学。虽然我们对观测到的赤道太平洋年际流有一些了解，但对赤道印度洋和大西洋年际流的结构、强度和变异性知之甚少。该项目的主要目标是利用理论和动态一致的高分辨率ECCO2数值模式结果来描述所有三个海洋盆地的年际赤道表面流动，并了解它们的主要方面。科学界正开始利用ECCO2全球海洋模型，该分析的第二个好处将是评估该模型的准确性及其在所有三个海洋盆地赤道附近的动力学。更广泛的影响：从1992年至今精确的长卫星高度计记录提供了一个前所未有的机会来研究低频赤道表面流的详细空间和时变结构，这些流在改变赤道海面温度和气候方面起着关键作用。如上所述，令人惊讶的是，我们对这些流动的结构和动力学知之甚少，因此研究这些流动，并了解它们在所有三个赤道海洋盆地中的物理特性，将对我们对赤道海洋和气候动力学的认识产生重大影响。这些基础知识将有助于许多科学家分析未来由多国大西洋PIRATA和印度洋RAMA观测项目收集的赤道气候数据的长期记录。新一代青年科学家的职业发展对海洋学的未来至关重要，本项目将支持一名刚刚完成博士后工作的初级研究人员。

Fundamental to an understanding of El Nino/Southern Oscillation climate fluctuations is an understanding of the interannual equatorial Pacific surface flows which advect the surface waters and change the sea surface temperature. Through the advent of accurate satellite altimeter measurements from late 1992 to the present, we now have long records of estimated sea levels and surface currents that are spatially well resolved and available not just in the Pacific, but also in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. These records are long enough to study the observed interannual surface flows and their dynamics. While we have some knowledge of the observed interannual flows in the equatorial Pacific, less is known about the structure, strength and variability of the interannual flows in the equatorial Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The main goal of the project will be to describe the interannual equatorial surface flows in all three ocean basins and understand major aspects of them using theory and the dynamically consistent high resolution ECCO2 numerical model results. The scientific community is beginning to take advantage of the ECCO2 global ocean model, and a secondary benefit of the analysis will be the evaluation of the accuracy of this model and its dynamics near the equator in all three ocean basins.Broader Impacts: Accurate, long satellite altimeter records from 1992 to the present day provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine the detailed spatial and time-varying structure of low frequency surface equatorial flows, flows which play a key role in changing equatorial sea surface temperature and climate. As noted above, surprisingly little is known about the structure and dynamics of these flows, so investigating these flows, and understanding their physics in all three equatorial ocean basins, will make a significant impact on our knowledge of equatorial ocean and climate dynamics. This fundational knowledge will be helpful to the many scientists who will analyze future long records of equatorial climate data gathered in the multinational Atlantic Ocean PIRATA and Indian Ocean RAMA observational programs. It is important to the future of oceanography that new young scientists develop their careers, and this project will support a junior researcher who recently completed her postdoctoral work.