Collaborative Research: The Effect of Submesoscale Processes on Property Fluxes and Distributions in the Upper Ocean

海洋表面和海洋内部之间的垂直输送在各种过程中起着重要作用，包括浮游生物生产所需的营养物质的供应以及与大气的气体、热量和动量交换。控制这些特性的机制是我们对上层海洋理解的一个长期存在的问题。在这些过程中，一公里量级的特征（称为亚中尺度）起着重要作用。在这项研究中，来自波士顿大学和马萨诸塞州大学达特茅斯的科学家将使用一个高分辨率的海洋锋面数值模型，以探索这些特征的动态及其对垂直输送、混合和特性分布的影响。他们有三个假设：1）在存在水平密度梯度和风应力的情况下，次中尺度不稳定性产生强烈的垂直速度; 2）这些过程因此增强了营养物的供应和溶解气体与大气的交换; 3）高应变区域（其中营养物等属性的细丝被拉伸和搅拌）也是局部强烈垂直运动的区域。该项目将进一步加深我们对亚中尺度过程的理解，这是物理海洋学目前非常感兴趣的一个领域。它对这些过程如何影响被动示踪剂的关注特别具有创新性，因为它有可能广泛影响其他学科。

ABSTRACTOCE-0623513Vertical transport between the sea surface and the interior of the ocean is instrumental in a variety of processes including the supply of nutrients for plankton production as well as the exchanges of gases, heat and momentum with the atmosphere. The mechanisms that control these properties is a long-standing question on our understanding of the upper ocean. Features on the order of one kilometer ( as scale known as the submesoscale) play an important role in these processes. In this study, scientists from Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, will use a high-resolution numerical model of an upper ocean front, in order to explore the dynamics of these features and their effects on vertical transport, mixing and the distribution of properties. They have three hypotheses: 1) in the presence of horizontal density gradients and wind stress, submesoscale instabilities generate intense vertical velocities; 2) these processes thus enhance nutrient supply and the exchange of dissolved gases with the atmosphere; 3) regions of high strain (in which filaments of properties such as a nutrients are stretched and stirred) are also regions of localized intense vertical motions. This project will further our understanding of submesoscale processes, an area of great current interest in physical oceanography. Its focus on how these processes impact passive tracers is particularly innovative because it has the potential to broadly impact other disciplines.