A New Look at Old Data in the Gulf of Mexico

智力优点：该项目侧重于三个相关活动：第一，重新分析墨西哥湾西部以前未公布的系泊计划，其中包括六个系泊和AXBT飞行;第二，分析尤卡坦海峡以前不广为人知的一组系泊数据;第三，与数值模拟人员和SSH分析人员合作，将海湾平均近地表流的新结果纳入其中。旧的实验设计和分析的理解是，墨西哥湾是由环流和一个单一的大的反隆环脱落。现代的理解是，墨西哥湾（和海洋的其余部分）基本上充满了漩涡，无论是小的和大的，这两个迹象，以及与地形罗斯贝波在这里相关。对旧实验的分析由于未能包括这些可能性而受到严重阻碍;目前的重新分析将能够包括自那时以来出现的想法。包括现代思想的影响在尤卡坦海峡的数据中尤为明显，在那里，工业-海军-墨西哥（深星星）联合计划的测量显着改变了对流型的理解。将这种新的平均流理解纳入SSH地图和数值模型可能是向前迈出的重要一步，具有为这些广泛使用的科学工具提供根本性改进的潜在优点。的论文将被带到开放，出版的文献，并将提供更广泛的应用。西海湾试验包括大约350个消耗性温度剖面，这将大大增加现有数据库的一个时间段，严重不足的采样。尤卡坦半岛实验中系泊装置的数据以前从未在公开文献中出现过。墨西哥湾上部的热量收支对理解飓风模型很重要。提高我们对上层水流和海湾与加勒比海之间深水交换的认识是这方面的一个关键环节，因为如果要平衡热量收支，就必须了解寒冷深水的交换。最后，一名研究生将接受主要研究员的培训和指导，进行独立研究。

Intellectual merit: This project focus on three related activities: first, the reanalysis of a previously unpublished mooring program in the western Gulf of Mexico which included six moorings and AXBT flights; second, analysis of a set of mooring data in Yucatan Channel not previously known widely; and third, incorporation of new results of a mean near-surface flow in the Gulf in collaboration with numerical modelers and SSH analysts. The older experiments were designed and analyzed with the understanding that the Gulf was dominated by the Loop Current and a single large anticylonic ring shed from it. The modern understanding is that the Gulf (and the rest of the ocean) is essentially filled with eddies both small and large and of both signs, as well as with the topographic Rossby waves relevant here. Analyses of older experiments were seriously hampered by the failure to include such possibilities; the present reanalysis will be able to include ideas that have emerged since. The effects of including modern ideas is particularly evident with the data in Yucatan Channel, where the understanding of the flow pattern was changed markedly by the measurements of the joint industry-Navy-Mexico (Deep Star) program there. Incorporating this new mean-flow understanding into both SSH maps and numerical models could be a major step forward, with the potential merit of providing a fundamental improvement for these widely-used scientific tools.Broader impacts: Historical data currently in unpublished files and master?s theses will be brought out into the open, published literature and will be made available for much wider application. The western Gulf experiment included approximately 350 expendable temperature profiles, which will add a great deal to the existing database for a time period that was seriously under-sampled. Data for the moorings in the Yucatan experiment have not previously been seen at all in the open literature. The heat budget of the upper Gulf of Mexico is important for understanding hurricane models. Improving our understanding of the upper-layer flow and the deep water exchange between the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea is a crucial link in this, as the exchange of cold deep water has to be understood if the heat budget is to be balanced. Finally, a graduate student will be trained and mentored by the principal investigator in conducting independent research.