Impact of Irminger Rings on Deep Convection in the Labrador Sea

拉布拉多海位于北大西洋北部，该地区的海水一直受到来自加拿大北部的干燥、寒冷的冬季风的冷却。冷却的、因此稠密的“拉布拉多海水”下沉并广泛扩散到整个北大西洋和更远的地方，从而将地球气候的变化“传递”到深海。一股携带较暖水的洋流流入拉布拉多海，以平衡失去的热量，即伊尔明格洋流，但它主要局限于拉布拉多海的外围。偶尔，含有被称为伊尔明格环的温暖边界流水核心的涡流会断裂并漂移到拉布拉多海的内陆地区。虽然其中一些漩涡的位置可以通过卫星上的仪器确定，但很少有实际的现场测量来确定它们将温暖的水存放在哪里以及如何将货物存放到公海中。需要这些信息来确定环对拉布拉多海热平衡的影响。将结合现有技术和创新技术对Irminger环进行新的现场测量。从2007年开始，将在年轻的伊尔明格环的路径上部署一个带有温度、盐度和海流传感器的深海系泊设备，为期两年，以观察它们最初的垂直和水平结构。根据对卫星观测的涡旋的普查，预计将有12个新形成的伊尔明格环经过系泊地点。同一系泊设备上将安装12个剖面浮标：每次有涡流通过系泊设备时，将释放一个浮标。由于环的强烈旋转速度，浮标被困在涡流核心中，这些浮标将在长达两年的时间里测量其水性质的变化。这些观测数据将与卫星数据和其他现场测量相结合，以估计进入拉布拉多海内陆的热通量，并验证数值模型的结果。这项研究将有助于气候科学和海洋学的进步。该项目涉及与加拿大海洋学家的合作，并将有助于科学思想的国际交流。通过与珀金斯盲人学校的试点项目，我们将为一群通常在地球科学领域代表性较低的学生提供教育体验。

The Labrador Sea, located in the northern North Atlantic Ocean, is a region where the ocean waters are consistently cooled by dry, cold winter winds coming from northern Canada. The cooled, and therefore dense "Labrador Sea Water" sinks and spreads widely throughout the North Atlantic and beyond, thereby "communicating" changes in the earth's climate to the deep ocean. A current carrying warmer waters flows into the Labrador Sea to balance this lost heat, the Irminger Current, but it is confined mainly to the periphery of the Labrador Sea. Occasionally, eddies containing a core of warm boundary current water, called Irminger Rings, break off and drift into the interior region of the Labrador Sea. Although the location of some of these eddies can be determined from satellite-borne instruments, there are very few actual in situ measurements of where and how they deposit their cargo of warm water into the open sea. Such information is needed to determine the impact of the rings on the heat balance of the Labrador Sea. New in situ measurements of Irminger Rings will be made using a combination of established and innovative technology. A deep-sea mooring with temperature, salinity and current sensors will be deployed in the path of young Irminger Rings for two years beginning in 2007 to observe their initial vertical and horizontal structure. It is anticipated that ~12 newly formed Irminger Rings will pass over the mooring site based on a census of eddies from satellite observations. Attached to the same mooring will be 12 profiling floats: one float will be released each time an eddy passes the mooring. Trapped in the eddy cores by the ring's strong swirling velocity, the floats will measure changes in their water properties for up to two years. These observations will be combined with satellite data and other in situ measurements to estimate the flux of heat into the interior Labrador Sea, and to verify results from numerical models.This research will contribute to the advancement of climate science as well as oceanography. The project involves collaboration with Canadian oceanographers and will contribute to international exchange of scientific ideas. Through a pilot program with the Perkins School for the Blind, we will provide an educational experience to a group of students typically underrepresented in the geosciences.