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水、热和盐在连接北欧海和北冰洋的弗拉姆海峡中的运动。这些变量很重要，因为它们影响着北冰洋东部形成的冰量和从沿海陆架输送到洋盆内部的水的量。冰盖会影响进入大气的热量、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确定该区域能够支持的海洋生物的丰度和物种。因此，了解通过弗拉姆海峡控制水流的过程对气候系统、北极生态系统、商业和当地渔业、航运和国家安全至关重要。研究人员将把这个项目的成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水平课程和讲座中，以提供数值方法、应用数学和计算机建模方面的培训。这项研究旨在研究北冰洋大气环流的基本动力学及其与低纬度的联系。该方法结合了一个多分量理论模式和一个理想的高分辨率涡旋分辨率的北极海冰耦合环流模式。其目标是将冰盖、淡水含量、气-海交换、热量、淡水和通过弗拉姆海峡的质量输送等基本量与风、热损失、径流以及从北欧海洋平流进入的大西洋水温和盐度的变化所造成的外部强迫联系起来。除了提供对控制物理的动态洞察外，这种方法还允许对系统可能如何响应不断变化的环境参数以及是否存在多个平衡或突变进行简单评估。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.