Collaborative Research: Quantifying the Residual Circulation of the Arctic Ocean

海洋中的地转涡旋输送热量、盐和质量的方式与大气中的风暴输送热量、湿度和质量的方式大致相同。这些涡旋输送的净效应对北冰洋水域的平均温度和盐度分层和环流有重大影响。他们的气候学。我们对北冰洋这些涡旋输送过程的认识还很薄弱。本项目致力于增进这种理解。该项目为STEM劳动力发展做出了重大贡献。它将支持培养一名博士后和一名研究生。此外，主要研究人员将为公众开发一个教学模块。坦克里的天气？项目-一个实验室指南，让学生在旋转框架中探索流体动力学实验，以更好地理解大气和海洋现象的基本物理。该模块将描述一个有指导意义的旋转实验室实验，以模拟在北冰洋波弗特环流中工作的基本原理。该项目还间接地对国家安全作出贡献，因为北冰洋的平均盐度分层是对北极海冰覆盖命运的重要控制，影响着北极的资源开发、运输、旅游和国防活动。对涡旋输送过程的更好理解以及随后将其纳入模式将改善对未来北极海冰覆盖状况的预测。该项目将通过研究与观测相结合的模式层次，确定地转湍流在加拿大北极波弗特环流（BG）的大规模环流中发挥核心作用的程度，形成其所谓的？剩余?循环。在海洋中运输示踪剂（如热、盐、碳）的是残差平均环流，它有两个组成部分：平均流速（欧拉平均值）的贡献。环流)，以及涡流(通常称为？丸运输吗?)这种分解为在理解南大洋环流的基本动力和全球气候影响方面取得进展提供了基本框架。本项目将通过对残差平均环流及其组成的研究，探索波弗特环流（BG）的基本动力过程，包括：1。分析涡旋在平衡环流淡水收支中的作用，平衡通过风的作用从地表抽取淡水，2。3.边界流和季节强迫作用的检验。残差均值的表征BG的循环-区别于欧拉平均值？循环。BG中残差和欧拉描述之间的显著差异将意味着涡流在示踪剂运输中具有主导作用。这将对北极海洋学、其环流和生物地球化学、我们如何在北极解释和观测以及如何模拟北极产生深远的影响。

Geostrophic eddies in the ocean transport heat, salt, and mass in much the same fashion that storms transport heat, humidity, and mass in the atmosphere. The net effect of these eddy transports has a significant impact on the mean temperature and salinity stratification and circulation of the waters of the Arctic Ocean ? their climatology. Our understanding of these eddy transport process in the Arctic Ocean is weak. This project is devoted to improving that understanding.The project contributes significantly to STEM workforce development. It will support the training of a post-doctoral associate and a graduate student. Furthermore, the principal investigators will develop a teaching module for the public ?Weather in a Tank? project - a laboratory guide for students to explore fluid dynamics experiments in a rotating frame to better understand the essential physics of atmosphere and ocean phenomena. The module will describe an instructive rotating laboratory experiment to simulate the fundamental principles at work in the Beaufort Gyre in the Arctic Ocean. The project also contributes indirectly to national security in that the mean salinity stratification of the Arctic Ocean is an important control on the fate of the Arctic sea ice cover, which influences resource development, transportation, tourism, and defense activities in the Arctic. A better understanding of eddy transport processes and their subsequent incorporation into models will improve projection of future states of the Arctic sea ice cover.This project will determine, through study of a hierarchy of models in context with observations, the degree to which geostrophic turbulence plays a central role in setting the large-scale circulation of the Beaufort Gyre (BG) of the Canadian Arctic, shaping its so-called ?Residual? circulation. It is the Residual-mean circulation that transports tracers (e.g., heat, salt,carbon) in the ocean, and this has two components: a contribution from the mean velocity (the ?Eulerian-mean? circulation), and a contribution from eddies (often called the ?bolus transport?). This decomposition has provided the essential framework for progress in understanding the fundamental dynamics and global climate implications of the Southern Ocean circulation. In this project, through study of the Residual-mean circulation and its components, fundamental dynamical processes at work in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) will be explored, including:1. analysis of the role of eddies in equilibrating the freshwater budget of the gyre, balancing the pumping down of fresh water from the surface by the action of the wind,2. examination of the role of boundary currents and seasonal forcing,3. characterization of the ?Residual-mean? circulation of the BG - distinguishing it from the ?Eulerian-mean? circulation.Significant differences between Residual and Eulerian descriptions in the BG will mean that eddies have a leading order role in tracer transport. This will have far-reaching implications for Arctic oceanography, its circulation and biogeochemistry, how we interpret and take observations in the Arctic and how we model the Arctic.