NSFGEO-NERC: Collaborative Research: Properties and Mechanisms of the Multiscale Eddy-Induced Diffusion

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Ocean eddies are fundamental to the distribution of properties such as heat, nutrients, carbon, and pollutants. This project will examine the effects of ocean eddies in distributing properties over time and space. The project uses established theory in geophysical fluid dynamics, a suite of state of the art numerical models, and ocean observations to examine how eddies distribute properties over space and time. The results will be a set of data that can be used to improve representations of the effects of eddies in numerical models of the ocean circulation and climate. The project is a collaboration between the US and the United Kingdom (UK) with the UK component being supported by the UK National Environmental Research Council (NERC) through an agreement with NSF.This project will explore properties of the inhomogeneous and anisotropic eddy-induced transport at mid-latitudes and examine their importance for tracer distribution. The eddy-induced transport will be quantified by a spatio-temporal map of the eddy diffusivity tensor which will be analyzed to explore the dependence of the results on the spatial and temporal scales used to define the eddies. This diffusivity map will then be used to produce tracer distributions in flows that do not fully resolve the eddy-driven tracer advection, and the resulting skill will be quantified. A hierarchy of eddy-resolving numerical simulations and observations from drifting buoys will be used. The study will advance fundamental understanding of how, where, and why different processes and scales contribute to the material transport and will develop novel methods for estimating scale-aware eddy diffusivity tensors.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.