Laboratory and Numerical Modeling of Some Aspects of the Dynamics of the Arctic Ocean and its Adjacent Seas

南加州大学的研究人员将进行研究，对北冰洋和邻近海域已发现的一些重要动力过程进行模拟和调查。北冰洋及其邻近海域在全球变暖中起着重要作用，了解其在多个空间和时间尺度上的动力学行为具有重要意义。在冬季的几个地方，稠密冷海水的主要来源形成并下沉。这些水中的大部分都到达了很深的地方，最终扩散到了世界各地的海洋盆地。这种热-盐环流是理解大气-海洋耦合系统长期演化的一个主要因素。这项工作将研究这个问题的某些方面。主要是由强烈冷却和/或冻结形成的致密水的运动受其产生的环境控制的机制。令人感兴趣的问题包括：a)由卫星图像反复观测并由北极不同地点的实地调查员报告的小尺度和中尺度涡旋结构的起源和动力学。B)在上层混合层和下伏的大西洋水之间形成盐跃层，这往往会保护冰盖不受向上热通量的影响。C)在边缘冰区观察到的上升流和/或下升流过程。D)大陆架与盆地水之间的相互作用。为了完成这项工作，实验室实验和数值计算都将有明确的目标。从最简单的非均匀热流对流实验到包含几乎所有控制参数的最复杂的对流实验，将解决广泛的一般性问题。通过这种方式，可以研究这些不同输入的单独和综合影响。

Investigators at the University of Southern California will undertake research to model and investigate some of the important dynamical processes that have been identified in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent Seas. The Arctic Ocean and its adjacent seas play an important role in global warming, and it is important to understand its dynamical behavior on many space and time scales. At several locations during the winter, major sources of dense cold seawater are formed and sink. Much of this water reaches great depths and eventually spreads through the world's ocean basins. This thermo- haline circulation is a major factor in understanding the long-term evolution of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system. This work will examine some aspects of this problem. Primarily, the mechanisms whereby the motion of the dense water that is formed by intense cooling and/or freezing is controlled by the environment in which it is created. Among the issues of interest are: a) The origin and dynamics of small and meso-scale eddy structures that have been observed repeatedly by satellite (IR) images and reported by field investigators at different Arctic locations. b) The formation of a halocline between the upper mixed layer and the underlaying Atlantic water, which tends to shield the ice cover from an upward heat flux. c) The upwelling and/or downwelling processes that have been observed in the marginal ice zones. d) Interaction between the shelf and the basin waters. To accomplish this work, both laboratory experiments and numerical calculations will be made with well defined objectives. A wide range of generic problems will be tackled starting from the simplest convection experiment with a non-uniform heat flux to the most complex in which virtually all of the controlling parameters are incorporated. In this way individual and combined effects of these various inputs can be studied.