Determining turbulent controls on ocean structure using autonomous robots

就其本质而言，湍流是混乱和零星的。然而，了解湍流和湍流混合对于准确预测海洋动力学、混合层深度、生物生产力、海气输送和全球碳循环至关重要。最近的发展表明，海洋滑翔机是测量湍流的绝佳平台。这些机器人代表了海洋混合测量的真实的阶跃变化;然而，仍然需要提供驱动或控制混合过程的类似分辨率测量。新装备的海洋滑翔机与集成电流速度计（ADCP）提供了测量海流速度以及密度结构和湍流在精细尺度的潜力。该项目将制定分析方法，以适当的长度和时间尺度测量海洋滑翔机的海流速度和切变，以捕捉层流和湍流之间的过渡，并关闭当地湍流动能预算。学生将使用这种新的能力来推进对理解地球系统至关重要的关键海洋通量的理解。

Turbulence is, by its very nature, chaotic and sporadic. Understanding turbulence and turbulent mixing is however, critical to accurately predict ocean dynamics, mixed layer depth, biological productivity, air-sea gas transfer and the global carbon cycle. Recent developments have shown ocean gliders to be excellent platforms for measuring turbulence. These robots represent a real step change in ocean mixing measurements; however, there remains the need to provide similar resolution measurements of the processes driving or controlling mixing. Newly equipped ocean gliders with integrated current velocimeters (ADCPs) offer the potential to measure ocean current velocities alongside density structure and turbulence at fine scales. This project will develop the analytical methods to measure current velocity and shear from ocean gliders at the appropriate length and time scales to capture the transition between laminar and turbulent ocean flows and close the local turbulent kinetic energy budget. The student will use this new capability to advance understanding of key ocean fluxes that are critical for understanding the Earth system.