Collaborative Research: Eddy fluxes across the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front near Southeast Indian Ridge

海洋环流通过全球海洋输送热量和碳并将热量和碳储存在深海，从而调节地球气候。在南大洋，地球上最强的洋流，南极绕极流（ACC），在海洋盆地之间分配热量，盐和淡水。该项目试图使用系泊仪器来量化南极绕极流（ACC）最南端进入南极洲周围沃茨的热量和盐的交换，该地区的ACC前沿非常接近，中尺度涡动活动特别高。该项目协调美国和韩国的观测和建模组件。仪器和建模将扩大和增强已经资助的韩国计划。部署和回收仪器所需的运输时间将由韩国提供。每年将通过弹出式数据航天飞机通过遥测技术收集来自系泊仪器的数据，使仪器在海底不受干扰。观测结果将用于改进和核实热通量的全球代用估计。全球范围内的理解热收支将由一个高分辨率的数值模式引导。这个项目的目标是测量和诊断海洋涡动热通量在背风面的东南印度洋海岭在ACC。这个位置脱颖而出，作为一个主要的ACC涡动通量热点和作为一个区域的三个ACC锋会聚在一起，因为他们遇到的脊复合体。在这个热点，平均和涡通量可能合谋跨越的宽度ACC.The重点是在最南端的ACC前，现有的原位测量稀疏，ACC源热影响南大洋罗斯和威德尔环流，并最终南极洲边缘。一个高分辨率的数值模型将为提议的观测提供更大的背景，并将寻求使用现有全球观测系统的替代估计。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Ocean circulation regulates the Earth’s climate by transporting heat and carbon through the global ocean and storing heat and carbon in the deep ocean. In the Southern Ocean, the strongest current on earth, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), distributes heat, salt, and freshwater between ocean basins. This project seeks to use moored instrumentation to quantify the exchange of heat and salt across the southernmost portion of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) into the waters around Antarctica in a sector where the ACC fronts are in close proximity and mesoscale eddy activity is particularly high. The project coordinates US and Korean observational and modeling components. The instrumentation and modeling will expand and augment an already funded Korean program. Ship time needed to deploy and recover the instruments will be provided South Korea. Data from the moored instruments will be collected annually by telemetry via pop-up data shuttles, leaving the instruments undisturbed on the seafloor. The observations will be used to refine and verify global proxy estimates of heat fluxes. Global context for understanding the heat budget will be guided by a high-resolution numerical model.The goal of this project is to measure and diagnose ocean eddy heat fluxes in the lee of Southeast Indian Ridge in the ACC. This location stands out as one of the major ACC eddy flux hot spots and as a region where the three ACC fronts converge closely together as they encounter the ridge complex. At this hot spot, mean and eddy fluxes likely conspire to cross the breadth the ACC. The focus is upon the southernmost ACC front where existing in situ measurements are sparse and where ACC-sourced heat influences the Southern Ocean Ross and Weddell gyres and ultimately the Antarctic margin. A high-resolution numerical model will provide the larger context for proposed observations, and proxy estimates will be sought that use the existing global observing system.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.