Arctic Air-Sea Fluxes and the Exchange Through Fram Strait

该项目将使用理论和数值模拟方法来了解连接北欧海和北冰洋的弗拉姆海峡的水、热和盐的运动。这些变量很重要，因为它们影响着北冰洋东部形成的冰的数量，以及从沿海大陆架输送到海洋盆地内部的水量。冰盖影响着进入大气的热量、大气天气模式以及私人、商业和军事海上航行。水温、盐度以及大陆架和深海之间的交换有助于决定该地区可以支持的海洋生物的丰度和种类。因此，了解通过弗拉姆海峡的水流控制过程对气候系统、北极生态系统、商业和当地渔业、航运和国家安全至关重要。研究者将把这个项目的结果纳入伍兹霍尔海洋研究所（WHOI）地球物理流体动力学暑期学校的研究生课程和讲座中，提供数值方法、应用数学和计算机建模方面的培训。本研究探讨了北冰洋环流的基本动力学及其与低纬度地区的联系。该方法结合了一个多分量理论模型和一个理想化的高分辨率涡旋解析耦合的北极海洋/冰环流模型。目标是将基本的数量联系起来——比如冰盖；淡水内容;海气交换;以及通过弗拉姆海峡的热量、淡水和物质运输——由于风、热损失、径流以及大西洋水温和盐度的变化从北欧海平流而来的外部强迫。除了提供对控制物理的动态洞察之外，这种方法还允许对系统如何可能响应不断变化的环境参数以及多重平衡或突变的存在进行简单的评估。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will use theoretical and numerical modeling approaches to understand the movement of water, heat, and salt through the Fram Strait connecting the Nordic Seas to the Arctic Ocean. These variables are important because they influence the amount of ice formed in the eastern Arctic Ocean and the amount of water transported from coastal shelves to the ocean basin interior. Ice cover affects the amount of heat put into the atmosphere, atmospheric weather patterns, and private, commercial, and military marine navigation. Water temperature, salinity, and the exchange between the shelves and deep ocean help determine the abundance and species of marine life that can be supported in the region. Thus, understanding processes controlling flow through Fram Strait is of crucial importance for the climate system, the Arctic ecosystem, commercial and local fisheries, shipping, and national security. The investigator will incorporate results from this program into graduate level classes and lectures at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer School at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to provide training on numerical methods, applied mathematics, and computer modeling.This study addresses the fundamental dynamics of the Arctic Ocean general circulation and its connection to lower latitudes. The approach combines a multi-component theoretical model with an idealized but high-resolution eddy resolving coupled ocean/ice general circulation model of the Arctic. The goal is to relate basic quantities -- such as ice cover; freshwater content; air-sea exchange; and heat, freshwater, and mass transport through Fram Strait -- to external forcing due to wind, heat loss, runoff, and variations in Atlantic Water temperature and salinity advected in from the Nordic Seas. In addition to providing dynamical insight into the controlling physics, this approach allows for a simple assessment of how the system is likely to respond to changing environmental parameters and of the existence of multiple equilibria or abrupt transitions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.