南海北部涡致锋面的结构特征及其能量转化

涡致锋面在本项目中特指中尺度涡旋与环境水体之间的过渡带，是南海北部锋面的重要组成部分。锋面能影响大气的边界层结构，其伴随的强对流混合能带来高的海洋初级生产力及渔业捕获量，因而在海洋气象预报、渔业预报等方面具有重要意义。涡致锋面是近十几年来物理海洋学研究的一个前沿和难点，其结构、能量转化特征、生消机制等还尚不明晰。本项目拟在前期研究的基础上，采用定点的水下滑翔机阵列、走航拖体观测等先进的观测方式，对南海北部涡致锋面进行现场观测，研究其温盐流结构特征，探究涡致锋面处能量转化及耗散规律，揭示涡致锋面的变化对湍流混合的影响及涡致锋面的生消机制。本项目有望为湍流参数化方案提供强有力的数据支持，为中尺度涡及次中尺度过程的高分辨率数值模拟提供理论依据。

Mesoscale eddy(ME) front is a transition zone between mesoscale eddy and the ambient water mass, and is an important component of fronts in the northern South China Sea. It influences the atmospheric boundary layer, and elevates vertical mixing, which brings high primary production and rich fish capture rate. As one of the advanced fields of physical oceanography, the structures, energy transformation, and the mechanisms of ME fronts’ genesis and lytic are not clear yet. This project, adopting 5 mooring Chinese underwater gliders and a towed body, aims to observe the fine structures of the ME fronts, to reveal the laws of the energy transfers and dissipation, to investigate the feedback of the vertical mixing to the variations of ME fronts, and to explore the mechanisms of the ME frontal genesis/frontolytic. This study is expected to deepen our knowledge on frontal dynamics, to support in situ data to turbulence parameterization scheme, and to improve the numerical modeling on (sub)mesoscale processes.