2022 Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Mixing: The Impact of Ocean Mixing on the Earth, Ocean and Atmosphere Systems, Climate and Society

该项目为2022年戈登研究会议和戈登海洋混合研究研讨会提供部分支持。湍流混合是复杂的混沌运动的结果，它跨越了大范围的空间和时间尺度。因此，测量和建模特别具有挑战性，但它具有广泛而重要的后果。在海洋中，湍流混合控制着热量、淡水、溶解气体和污染物的输送。它对海洋生物学至关重要，因为它既决定了最小浮游生物的流场，又决定了养分可利用性的大规模梯度。它对于理解海洋的能量学和减少全球环流和气候模式的不确定性也至关重要：最近的工作表明，深海混合的时空非均匀性可能在气候中起关键作用；了解驱动深海混合强度分布的物理学是至关重要的。然而，即使经过半个世纪的努力来了解它的全球分布，观测结果仍然很少；仍然需要各种直接和间接的方法来描述导致湍流的动力学过程，并从更大尺度的预算中推断混合。因此，利用各种观测技术（在最小（毫米）尺度上直接测量速度和温度波动，从大规模湍流倾覆中推断，通过有目的的染料释放观察净混合），数值和理论方法以及实验室实验，积极研究海洋混合的物理学。最后，通过将前面提到的工作的动力学见解转化为实际的参数化，解决了大尺度气候模式（不直接解决混合问题）混合的后果。作为一个具体的例子，在数值气候模式中使用不同的混合方案变化预测了热带海洋温度超过1度，并预测海平面上升超过30厘米。混合是不确定性的最大来源之一，困扰着当今具有重大社会意义的模式。定期举行的海洋混合GRC提供了一个必要的论坛，以提高更广泛的社区对海洋湍流混合的理解，以及从气候变化到支撑我们渔业的全球营养模式的各种深刻而广泛的影响。GRC的形式恰恰鼓励跨学科的思考和合作，这对解决这些社会问题至关重要。特别是，这个GRC有助于我们的科学界成为最具活力和包容性的科学界。海洋混合在历史上一直受到多样性不足的困扰，尽管近年来有所改善，但仍然需要新人的涌入，扩大国内和国际合作者之间的联系，并增加跨学科的互动。NSF的支持将明确用于扩大参与者的人口、专业和地理多样性，支持代表性不足和资源不足的群体参加会议，这些群体将从GRC格式的知识环境和网络机会中受益。这次戈登研究会议的目的和范围是为讨论迅速发展的海洋混合领域提供一个论坛。重点是三个方面：对世界混合的观察，对控制混合率的动力学的新见解，以及混合对区域和全球环流和预算的影响。后两者包括参数化的发展，将动力学见解转化为有用的东西，包括在区域模式和全球数值气候模式中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project provides partial support for the 2022 Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar on Ocean Mixing. Turbulent mixing results from complex and chaotic motions that span a large range of spatial and temporal scales. As such, it is particularly challenging to measure and model, yet it has vast and important consequences. In the ocean, turbulent mixing controls transport of heat, freshwater, dissolved gasses, and pollutants. It is crucial for ocean biology because it both determines the flow field for the smallest plankton, and it sets large-scale gradients of nutrient availability. It is also central to understanding the energetics of the ocean and reducing the uncertainties in global circulation and climate models: recent work has shown that the spatial and temporal non-homogeneity in deep-ocean mixing may play a critical role in climate; understanding the physics that drives the distribution of deep-ocean mixing intensity is critical. Yet even after a half a century of efforts to understand its global distribution, observations are still sparse; a variety of direct and indirect methods are still needed to characterize the dynamical processes that lead to turbulence, and inferences of mixing from larger scale budgets. As such, the physics of ocean mixing is actively studied using a variety of observational techniques (direct measure of velocity and temperature fluctuations at the smallest (mm) scales, inferences from large-scale turbulent overturns, observations of net mixing by purposeful dye release) numerical and theoretical approaches, as well as laboratory experiments. Finally, the consequences of mixing for larger scale climate models (which do not directly resolve mixing) are addressed by turning dynamical insights of the previously mentioned work into practical parameterizations. As a concrete example, using different mixing schemes in numerical climate models changes predicted tropical ocean temperatures by more than a degree and predicted sea level rise by more than 30 cm. Mixing is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty plaguing today’s models with impact of great societal relevance. A regularly held GRC on Ocean Mixing provides a needed forum to improve the broader community’s understanding of turbulent mixing in the ocean, and with it a variety of deep and broad implications for everything from climate change to global nutrient patterns that underlie our fisheries. The GRC format encourages precisely the sort of interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration that is so vital to addressing these societal issues. This GRC, in particular, helps our scientific community be the most vibrant & inclusive it can be. The ocean mixing has historically suffered from poor diversity, which, while improved in recent years, still needs an influx of new people, a broadening of ties amongst domestic and international collaborators, and increased interdisciplinary interactions. NSF support will explicitly be used to expand the demographic, professional and geographic diversity of participants by supporting attendance of under-represented and under-resourced groups who stand to benefit from the intellectual environment and networking opportunities of the GRC format.The purpose and scope of this Gordon Research Conference is to provide a forum for discussion of the rapidly evolving field of ocean mixing. Emphasis is threefold: observations of mixing in the world, new insights into dynamics that control mixing rates, and impacts of mixing on regional and global circulation and budgets. The latter two include development of parameterizations to turn dynamical insights into useful things to include in regional models and global numerical climate models.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.