Icelandic Coastal Current interactions with peninsulas, bays, winds, and ocean currents controlling freshwater export and retention

冰岛海岸流是一种漂浮的（咸）流，流经沿海的岬角和海湾。该项目将使用冰岛沿岸流作为案例研究，以促进对沿海地貌、海底变化、风和近海水流引起的跨大陆架水运输的理解和量化。该项目将从漂流浮标和计算机模拟中获取信息，以跟踪冰岛沿海洋流的沃茨。计算机模拟还将分析浮力运输对与21世纪和22世纪变暖相关的河流流量变化变化的敏感性。模拟将用人工示踪剂追踪有浮力的沃茨，这些示踪剂将提供这些沃茨冲出该地区所需时间的信息。模拟将利用冰岛海洋淡水研究所的水文观测和卫星测量来区分浮力流的边缘。 作为更广泛的影响，该项目将支持一名博士后研究员和一名研究生。它还将把研究结果纳入本科生和研究生课程，并在YouTube上发布关于河流对海洋环境影响的视频。PI将参加一个公立学校系统的教育活动，该系统有不同的学生群体。这项研究将研究冰岛河流向北大西洋的淡水出口。冰岛是研究区域，因为它有各种各样的大陆架条件（例如，宽的和窄的陆架宽度、高的和低的河流输入区、广阔的峡谷和没有峡谷、不同曲率半径的海岬、上升流和下降流条件），从而可以探索各种各样的陆架-海洋相互作用。此外，该系统是通往北极的门户，具有复杂的水文循环（河流系统由冰川融化和降水补给），受到气候变化的影响。有几个具体目标涉及在复杂的沿海地形、风和公海强迫下沿海浮力水的近海运输。该研究将解决这些目标的双重嵌套的现实ROMS模拟与外部分辨率为4公里和0.5公里的内部分辨率，并与漂流物释放的背景下，浮力驱动的冰岛沿岸流。数值模拟将用冰岛海洋淡水研究所的数据和漂流物释放的数据进行验证。模拟将研究不同的气候变化情景，重点是预测水文循环的变化。分析将量化陆架-海洋交换，包括陆架断裂处的示踪剂通量、涡动动能场的计算和停留时间。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The Icelandic Coastal Current is a buoyant (brackish) current that moves past coastal headlands and bays. This project will use the Icelandic Coastal Current as a case study to advance understanding of and quantify transport of water across the continental shelf caused by coastal land-forms, bottom variations, winds, and offshore flows. The project will draw information from drifting floats and computer simulations to track waters from the Icelandic Coastal Current. Computer simulations will also analyze the sensitivity of buoyant transport to shifts in river discharge variations associated with 21st and 22nd century warming. Simulations will track buoyant waters with artificial tracers that will provide information on the time it takes for these waters to flush out of the region. Simulations will leverage hydrographic observations by Iceland’s Marine & Freshwater Research Institute, and satellite measurements that distinguish the edge of the buoyant current. As broader impacts, the project will support one postdoctoral researcher and one graduate student. It will also incorporate findings into undergraduate and graduate classes, and post YouTube videos on river influences in the marine environment. The PI will participate in educational events at a public school system with a diverse student population.This study will examine freshwater export from Icelandic rivers to the North Atlantic Ocean. Iceland is the study region as it has an assortment of shelf conditions (e.g., wide and narrow shelf widths, high and low river input regions, extensive canyons and no canyons, headlands of different radii of curvature, upwelling and downwelling conditions) that allow exploration of a wide range of shelf-ocean interactions. In addition, the system is a gateway to the Arctic with a complex hydrological cycle (having river systems fed by glacial melt and precipitation) that are being impacted by climate change. Several specific objectives pertain to the offshore transport of coastal buoyant water in the presence of complex coastal topography, wind, and open ocean forcing. The research will address these objectives with doubly-nested realistic ROMS simulations with an outer resolution of 4km and an inner resolution of 0.5 km, and with drifter releases in the context of the buoyancy-driven Icelandic Coastal Current. Numerical simulations will be validated with data from Iceland’s Marine & Freshwater Research Institute and the drifter releases. Simulations will investigate different climate change scenarios focused on predicted changes in the hydrological cycle. Analyses will quantify shelf-ocean exchanges including tracer fluxes across the shelf break, calculations of Eddy Kinetic Energy fields, and residence times.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.