Collaborative Research: The Interaction of Anticyclonic Eddies with Deep Convection

越来越多的观测证据表明，强烈的、通常持续时间较长的非气旋性涡旋是世界海洋深层对流区突出的动力特征之一。然而，基于过去有限的观测资料，模型研究倾向于关注恰恰相反的情况，即气旋涡旋在受到强烈地表冷却时迅速解体。反气旋涡旋可以以多种方式与深层对流相互作用，但它们对对流水团转化的净影响远不明显。因此，它们的影响必须被视为全球温盐环流中一个重要的尚未解决的因素，进而被视为一个重大的社会关注的研究问题。提出了采用模拟和数据分析相结合的方法来研究反气旋涡旋和对流之间的相互作用。受强表面浮力损失影响的反气旋涡流的详细行为将在广泛的参数空间范围内进行研究。借助新开发的数学和统计技术，我们将使用各种高质量的数据集系统地识别和描述几个关键对流区域的相干涡流。最终结果应该是朝着在现实环境中更全面地理解深层对流迈出的重要一步。这项面向过程的工作将使大尺度模式对流的参数化得到改进，从而更准确地预测气候变率。

An increasing amount of observational evidence now points to intense, oftenlong-lived, aticyclonic eddies as one of the outstanding dynamical features in thedeeply convecting regions of the world ocean. Yet modeling studies, informed by themore limited observations available in the past, have tended to focus on precisely theopposite case, cyclonic eddies that rapidly disintegrate when subjected to strongsurface cooling. Anticyclonic eddies could interactwith deep convection in a variety of ways, but their net effect on convectivewater mass transformation is far from obvious. Their influence must therefore beconsidered an important unresolved element of the global thermohaline circulation, andby extension, a research problem of substantial societal concern.It is proposed to investigate the interaction between anticyclonic eddies andconvection using a combined modeling and data analysis approach. The detailedbehavior of anticyclonic eddies subject to strong surface buoyancy loss will beexamined throughout a broad range of parameter space. With the aid of newlydeveloped mathematical and statistical techniques, we will systematically identify anddescribe coherent eddies in several key convection areas using a variety of high-qualitydatasets. The net result should be a significant step towards a more completeunderstanding of deep convection in a realistic setting. This process-oriented work willmake possible improved parameterizations of convection in large-scale models,and thus more accurate predictions of climate variability.