Collaborative Research: Coupling of Trade Winds with the Ocean's Subtropical Cells

热带地区的能量传输是一种耦合现象，大气和海洋都起着重要作用。虽然大气分量的越赤道能量通量已经得到了很好的研究，但对海洋跨赤道能量通量的动力学了解还很少。众所周知，热量主要是由信风驱动的副热带气旋(STC)在低纬海洋中传输的。它们将表层水推离赤道，在那里它们在更高的纬度被俯冲，然后通过复杂的路径返回深处。这项研究将促进对STC和信风之间的耦合以及它们对高纬度能量不平衡的响应的认识。提高对这种耦合的认识将有助于提高对热带海洋能量输送、热带降水变化的控制过程以及对全球海洋环流和热带气旋的扰动之间关系的认识。这是一项研究海洋副热带环流与信风之间的耦合，以及这种耦合如何调节热带降水带的迁移。这项工作既包括对观测的分析，也包括使用将作为研究的一部分开发的一系列大气-海洋耦合模式对关键过程的调查。该项目侧重于海洋流域的区域规模，试图更好地理解在理想化的、纬向对称的情况下提出的论点如何适用于更现实的环境。它还将调查STC的动态如何受到全球海洋环流扰动的影响。这一裁决反映了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。

Energy transport in the tropics is a coupled phenomenon, with both the atmosphere and the ocean playing important roles. While the atmospheric component of cross-equatorial energy fluxes has been well studied, the dynamics of oceanic cross-equatorial energy fluxes are much less well understood. It is known that heat is primarily transported in the ocean at low latitudes by the Subtropical Cells (STCs), which are driven by the trade winds. These push surface waters away from the equator, where they are subducted at higher latitudes and then return at depth via complex pathways. This research will advance knowledge of the coupling between the STCs and the trade-winds, and the responses of these to high latitude energy imbalances. Improved understanding of this coupling will improve knowledge of how energy is transported by tropical oceans, the processes governing variability of tropical precipitation and the relationship between perturbations to the global ocean circulation and the STCs.This is a study to investigate the coupling between the oceanic subtropical cells (STCs) and the trade-winds, and how that coupling modulates the migration of tropical precipitation belts. The work includes both analysis of observations and investigations of key processes using a hierarchy of coupled atmosphere-ocean models, to be developed as part of the study. The project focuses on the regional scale of ocean basins, seeking to better understand how arguments made in idealized, zonally symmetric situations apply to more realistic settings. It will also investigate how the dynamics of the STCs are affected by perturbations in the global ocean circulation.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.