Exploring extreme vertical currents in the Western Mediterranean Sea

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The goal of this project is to explore motions that connect the surface and the bottom of the ocean with the interior, the so-called ‘submesoscale currents’, which influence the variability of biogeochemical properties in the ocean. These motions span between hundreds and thousands of meters in the horizontal, between tens and hundreds of meters in the vertical, and they vary over several hours to days. Aspects investigated in this project are the spatial structure of the motions, their dynamics, and how their associated vertical velocities connect the surface and bottom layers with the ocean’s interior. The exploration will be done combining multiple computer simulations focused in the Alboran Sea, the westernmost region of the Mediterranean basin. The study will extend the investigators’ own results that scrutinized submesoscale motions in this region. Those results illustrated that vertical transports occur near surface fronts (the boundary between water masses of different properties) and at the bottom near topographic obstacles. This project intends to expand on the previous results by scrutinizing the evolution of submesoscale motions. The study is based on the hypothesis, based on previous results, that the largest vertical velocities in the study area are associated to surface fronts and to interactions of the currents with bottom topography. Results from this study should contribute to better understanding of the vertical transport of materials in the ocean. The project will provide opportunities for Spanish PhD students to visit UCLA and acquire experiences in computational fluid dynamics, data analysis, and scientific communication. It will also involve high-school student outreach activities.The goal of this project is to explore the role of submesoscale currents in promoting vertical currents that connect the surface and bottom layers with the ocean interior. The study will be based on numerical simulations of the Alboran Sea, in the western Mediterranean basin. The work builds on a recent, realistic, high-resolution numerical model study by the PIs that analyzes submesoscale flows in this region. Those results illustrate that rapid and deep vertical displacements are associated with surface fronts and with interactions of the currents with bathymetry. The PIs will conduct extensive numerical simulations with a series of realistic, nested-model experiments at increasing time and spatial resolutions, in combination with idealized process-study simulations and Lagrangian approaches. This combination of realistic-process strategy will describe the spontaneous emergence and subsequent evolution of submesoscale currents. The project will advance understanding of the mechanisms that trigger vertical currents in the ocean, which have relevant physical and biogeochemical implications.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.