Excellence in Research: The role of wave-current-ice interaction to a freshwater plume dynamics

河流羽流动力学是河口环流的一个重要现象，有助于河口物质的输送和动量平衡，在潮间带季节活跃取决于科里奥利力、风、潮汐和淡水排放。例如，密歇根湖(五大湖之一)每年春天都会有10公里宽的羽流将物质重新悬浮到南岸100公里以上。然而，造成这种差异的因素尚不清楚。密歇根湖南部的温带气候可能受到其北部盆地较冷的气候和冰盖的影响。南部盆地受周边人口密度较大的干扰，容易通过河流河道造成水污染。这个拟议的项目旨在利用为密歇根湖开发的水动力学和冰的耦合数值模式来研究：(A)波-流-冰-羽流相互作用对沿海羽流形成的影响，(B)当冰盖移动时羽流与冰动力学的相互作用机制，(C)在密歇根湖南部气候情景下羽流行为/发生的预测。该项目将帮助扩大该领域的少数族裔学生群体，支持HBCU社区内唯一的物理海洋学数值模拟实验室，并通过在HBCU进行探究式学习，为来自代表性不足群体的学生提供机会，将研究与他们的教育相结合。这项拟议的研究将利用数值水动力-波浪-冰模型，促进对大湖中羽流行为的影响因素的理解，以及湖流、湖浪和湖冰是如何受羽流影响的。理想化的数值实验将分离出羽流与流、波和冰相互作用的复杂系统中的各个因素，并揭示影响羽流行为的重要因素。考虑到气候变化的情景，对密歇根湖南部羽流动态的未来预测可以推动这项研究，以调查养分分布和生产力，解决现实世界的挑战之一。具体地说，拟议的项目将产生以下学术价值：对河流/沉积物羽流与水流、海浪和冰盖的相互作用以及这些相互作用中的能量平衡的高级理解；在气候变化情景下对未来羽流动态的预测，这将导致了解营养物质的分布并重新定义生产力区域；对密歇根湖南部到本世纪中叶的海流、波浪和冰环境的未来预测。这一奖项反映了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。

River plume dynamics are an important phenomenon to an estuarine circulation contributing to transport of estuarine materials and momentum balance, which are seasonally active in intertidal zones depending upon the Coriolis force, wind, tide, and freshwater discharges. For example, Lake Michigan (one of the Great Lakes) witnesses 10 km wide plume that resuspends materials extending over 100 km southern shore in every spring. However, factors responsible for the variability are not yet understood. The temperate climate of southern Lake Michigan is potentially influenced by the colder climate and ice covers in its northern basin. Southern basin is intervened by the denser population in the surroundings and prone to water pollution though the riverine channels. This proposed project aims to use a coupled hydrodynamics and ice numerical model developed for the Lake Michigan to investigate the: (a) effects of the wave-current-ice-plume interactions on coastal plume formation, (b) mechanism of plume interaction with the ice dynamics when ice cover is mobile, (c) projection of plume behavior/occurrence under climate scenarios in southern Lake Michigan. This project will help expand a pool of minority students in the field, by supporting the only physical oceanography numerical modeling laboratory within the HBCU community in the continental US and by providing students from underrepresented groups with opportunities to integrate research with their education through inquiry-based learning at an HBCU. The proposed research will advance understanding of the factors governing plume behavior in a large lake and how the lake current, waves, and ice are in turn influenced by the plumes, using numerical hydrodynamic-wave-ice modeling. Idealized numerical experiments will separate the factors in the complex system of plume interactions with currents, waves, and ice and reveal important factors that dominate the impacts on plume behavior. The future projection of the plume dynamics in southern Lake Michigan considering scenarios of climate change can forward the study to investigate nutrient distributions and productivity resolving one of the real-world challenges. Specifically, the proposed project will lead to the following intellectual merits: Advanced understanding of river/sediment plume interactions with currents, waves, and ice cover and the energy balance in these interactions; Future projections of plume dynamics out the mid-century under the climate change scenarios that will lead to understand the nutrients distribution and redefine the productivity zone; Future projections of current, wave, and ice environments in southern Lake Michigan out to the mid-century.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.