Role of the Southern Ocean in the global ocean circulation

拟议的研究将调查南大洋和南极绕极洋流系统在全球海洋环流中可能发挥的重要作用。重点将放在那些可能影响世界海洋的具体南极过程上，包括南极洲附近主要水团的形成、热、水和动量的海-气交换，以及南大洋的涡旋混合。需要解决的关键问题是：1.南极底层水的动力作用是什么？2.南极中间水在全球环流中的作用是什么？3.为什么全球温盐环流对南半球风的大小很敏感？4.全球温盐环流对南半球热通量和水汽通量的大小有什么敏感性？5.南大洋涡旋混合的作用是什么？6.侧向热通量的作用是什么，南大洋北部边界的湿度和动量？这些问题将通过海洋环流模型和复杂的海冰模型相结合的一系列数值实验来解决，以便在合理的时间框架内获得有意义的结果。这项工作大大提高了我们对南大洋动态的了解，并将强调南极区域的重要性以及今后对该区域进行观测和建模研究的必要性。

The proposed study will investigate the potentially significant role of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current System in the global ocean circulation. The focus will be on those specific antarctic processes that can influence the World Ocean, including formation of major water masses in the vicinity of Antarctica, air-sea exchanges of heat, moisture and momentum, as well as eddy mixing in the Southern Ocean. Key questions to be addressed are:1. What is the dynamical role of the Antarctic Bottom Water? 2. What is the role of the Antarctic Intermediate Water in the global circulation? 3. Why is the global thermohaline circulation sensitive to the magnitude of southern hemisphere winds?4. What is the sensitivity of the global thermohaline circulation to the magnitudes of southern hemisphere heat and moisture fluxes? 5. What is the role of the eddy mixing in the Southern Ocean?6. What is the role of the lateral fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum across the northernboundary of the Southern Ocean?These questions will be addressed with an ocean general circulation model coupled to a sophisticated sea-ice model in a series of numerical experiments combining a sufficient degree of realism with computational efficiency, in order to obtain meaningful results within a reasonable time frame. The work significantly improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Southern Ocean, and will emphasize the importance of the Antarctic region and the need for future observational and modeling studies of the area.