Turbulence in Antarctic Circumpolar Current standing meanders

本文旨在研究湍流混合在南大洋经向翻转环流和南极环极流（ACC）动力学中的作用。该项目的动机是最近发现的南大洋地区非常强烈和广泛的湍流，这一观察结果挑战了目前基于海洋内部很少混合假设的环流理论理解。这个项目令人兴奋，因为它将首次使用创新的仪器来测量南大洋深处的湍流混合，以确定其原因，并评估其对翻转环流和ACC运输的影响。该项目的重点将是观察和模拟克尔格伦高原北部的环流和混合，这是当前系统的一个动态重要区域。这种观察ACC的新方法将为了解洋流如何与海底地形相互作用（这是理解ACC传输的关键问题）、南大洋翻转环流的动力学性质以及如何在海洋环流和气候模型中表示这一点提供重要的新见解。

This proposal is to study the role of turbulent mixing in the meridional overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The project is motivated by the recent discovery of Southern Ocean regions of remarkably intense and widespread turbulence, an observation that defies current theoretical understanding of the circulation based on the assumption of little mixing in the ocean interior. The project is exciting because it will use innovative instrumentation to measure turbulent mixing in the deep Southern Ocean for the first time, to determine its causes and to assess its impact on the overturning circulation and the transport of the ACC. The focus of the project will be on observing and modelling the circulation and mixing in a standing meander of the ACC north of the Kerguelen Plateau, a dynamically important region of the current system. This novel way of looking at the ACC will provide important new insight into how the the current interacts with bottom topography (a crucial issue for understanding what sets the ACC transport), the dynamical nature of the overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and how this should be represented in ocean circulation and climate models.