Collaborative Research: Advancing knowledge of Arctic sea ice interactions with tropopause polar vortices and Arctic cyclones

合作研究：增进对北极海冰与对流层顶极涡和北极气旋相互作用的了解

• 批准号: 2141537
• 负责人: Steven Cavallo
• 金额: $ 55.15万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-05-15 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141537&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Advancing; knowledge; Arctic

In recent decades Arctic sea ice has become more mobile and thinner, leading to an increasingly important role of Arctic cyclones in sea ice loss, which can occur at an astonishing rate of 0.5 million square kilometers (about 200,000 square miles) within a 3-day period. This research aims to understand the critical mechanisms that determine the location, strength, evolution, and characteristics of Arctic cyclones (ACs) and tropopause polar vortices (TPVs), and their potential for influencing sea ice break-up and decline. TPVs are an important precursor to the development and evolution of ACs and are also one of the longest-lived features in the Earth’s lower atmosphere. Yet their locations in data-sparse regions of the Arctic and their relatively small spatial scale make it difficult to observe and understand their detailed structure and resulting impacts on the Earth’s climate. Fundamental differences exist between the dynamics of cyclones in middle latitudes and the Arctic. For example, atmospheric vortices rather than waves play a more significant role in cyclone lifecycles and radiative processes have increased importance in maintaining and strengthening TPVs. Thus, the correct treatment of cloud and radiative processes in models is likely critical to accurately defining the structure and intensity of TPVs and ACs. The data needed to expand knowledge of these Arctic processes is currently limited due to the relatively sparse Arctic conventional observing network and the difficulties in obtaining high-quality measurements of Arctic clouds and moisture from satellite-based remote sensing. This project will also assess where new data are needed.This project will investigate the coupling of TPVs and ACs with the underlying sea surface and sea ice during the summer and advance our knowledge of how this coupling can lead to rapid sea ice loss. Researchers will test the hypothesis that an accurate representation of the vertical distribution of water vapor is necessary to represent the radiative heating required to evolve and intensify TPVs and ACs. The researchers will combine observations with state-of-the-art high-resolution numerical weather models and fully-coupled Earth-System models through coupled ensemble data assimilation for multi-scale studies. The team will perform observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) as well as observing system experiments (OSEs) using atmospheric data from an aircraft field campaign and routinely available satellite and atmospheric data to estimate the observation impacts in a variety of well-defined scenarios. Knowledge gained from detailed simulations and observations of the processes that cause error growth will lead to improvements in weather and climate prediction by improving the representation of these processes in Earth-system numerical models across a wide range of scales, which is a main priority in the 2022-2026 Arctic Research Plan by The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC). Students at all levels will have an opportunity to work with the data produced in this project, with a focus towards broadening participation from chronically underrepresented groups in STEM fields and in Oklahoma, including students identifying as Native Americans, members of First Nations, Indigenous people, and American Indians.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.

近几十年来，北极海冰变得更加流动和变薄，导致北极气旋在海冰消失中发挥着越来越重要的作用，在3天的时间里，海冰消失的速度可以达到令人震惊的50万平方公里(约20万平方英里)。本研究旨在了解决定北极气旋(ACS)和对流层顶极涡(TPV)位置、强度、演变和特征的关键机制，以及它们影响海冰破裂和下降的可能性。热带气旋是气旋系统发展和演化的重要先驱，也是地球低层大气中寿命最长的特征之一。然而，它们位于北极数据稀少的地区，空间规模相对较小，因此很难观察和了解它们的详细结构及其对地球气候的影响。中纬度和北极地区的气旋动力学存在根本差异。例如，大气涡旋而不是波浪在气旋生命周期中发挥着更重要的作用，辐射过程在维持和加强气旋涡旋方面变得更加重要。因此，正确处理模式中的云和辐射过程可能是准确定义TPV和AC的结构和强度的关键。由于北极常规观测网络相对稀少，以及难以从卫星遥感获得高质量的北极云层和湿度测量，目前扩大对这些北极过程的知识所需的数据有限。这个项目还将评估哪里需要新的数据。这个项目将调查夏季期间TPV和ACS与下伏海面和海冰的耦合，并促进我们对这种耦合如何导致海冰迅速消失的了解。研究人员将测试这一假设，即需要准确地表示水蒸气的垂直分布，以表示演化和加强TPV和AC所需的辐射加热。研究人员将通过耦合集合数据同化将观测与最先进的高分辨率数值天气模式和完全耦合的地球系统模型结合起来，进行多尺度研究。该小组将使用来自飞机现场战役的大气数据以及常规可用的卫星和大气数据来执行观测系统模拟实验(OSSES)以及观测系统实验(OSS)，以估计各种明确情景下的观测影响。从导致误差增长的过程的详细模拟和观测中获得的知识将通过改善这些过程在大范围地球系统数值模型中的表现来改进天气和气候预测，这是机构间北极研究政策委员会(IARPC)在2022-2026年北极研究计划中的主要优先事项。各级学生将有机会使用这个项目产生的数据，重点是扩大STEM领域和俄克拉何马州长期代表性不足群体的参与，包括认定为美洲原住民、第一民族成员、土著人民和美洲印第安人的学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。