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

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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.