Collaborative Research: The Interactions Between Internal Waves, Mesoscale eddies, and Submesoscale Currents in the California Current System

本研究将探讨中尺度涡旋、亚中尺度洋流、近惯性内波和潮汐内波（IWs）之间的相互作用和能量交换在决定海洋全球耗散和混合模式中的作用。研究的重点是控制相互作用的基础物理学，并具体应用于加州电流系统。加州洋流系统是一个涡流丰富的东部边界上升流区域，在那里以前已经观察到高能近惯性波（NIWs）和潮汐IWs（内部潮汐），这可能会用于NASA的地表水和海洋地形（SWOT）校准和验证实验。该方法将在推测中进行一系列理想化和现实的先进数值模拟，并进行现场系泊观测，以测试模型的真实性。分析将基于不同分辨率的数值实验，系统地包括和排除潮汐和风力驱动的NIWs。pi将参与科学传播的标准途径，即论文、研讨会和在学会会议上的演讲。此外，建议的工作将促进早期职业科学家的职业发展，并支持一名博士后，一名博士研究生和一名硕士研究生。该项目还将支持本科生两个暑假的研究和前往加纳沿海海洋环境暑期学校的旅行（coessing.org）。这所学校由项目成员之一创建，为非洲国家的学生提供了学习海洋学的机会。海洋的总体环流受到动能和可用势能从盆地尺度的力注入到厘米尺度的途径的强烈限制，在厘米尺度上它们被耗尽。为了确定海洋对未来气候情景的反应，必须理解和量化这些从强迫到消散的能量途径。以往的研究已经确定了中尺度和亚中尺度环流对动能耗散途径的重要性，近惯性和潮汐环流对有效势能混合途径的重要性，但尚未对两者之间的耦合以及涡波相互作用的作用进行全面的研究。在这里，现实的模拟和理想的模拟将系统地研究在变分层、旋转和强迫强度下的相互作用，将极大地促进对现在和未来海洋能量分布的理解。这项工作将促进目前对海洋能量学的理解，并将指导扩散参数化的发展，该参数化考虑了不同现象对能量混合和耗散的综合时空贡献。这些参数化可以在气候模式中实现，并改善气候预估。此外，这项工作将大大改善当前和未来卫星海面高度观测的可解释性，其分析将因非相干内波信号而变得复杂。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This study will examine the role of the interactions and energy exchanges between mesoscale eddies, submesoscale currents, and near-inertial and tidal internal waves (IWs) in determining global dissipation and mixing patterns in the ocean. The focus of the research is on the fundamental physics that governs the interactions, with specific applications to the California Current System. The California Current System is an eddy-rich eastern boundary upwelling region where energetic near inertial waves (NIWs) and tidal IWs (internal tides) have been previously observed and that will likely be used for NASA's Surface Water & Ocean Topography (SWOT) calibration and validation experiment. The approach will be to conduct a hierarchy of idealized and realistic state of the art numerical simulations in conjecture with in situ mooring observations for testing the realism of the models. The analysis will be based on numerical experiments of variable resolutions that systematically include and exclude tides and wind-forced NIWs. The PIs will engage in standard avenues for scientific communication, namely papers, seminars and presentations at society meetings. In addition, the proposed work will promote the career development of an early career scientist and support one postdoc, one PhD student and one MS student. The project will also support two summers of undergraduate research and the travel to the Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana (coessing.org). This school, founded by one of the project team members, provides an opportunity for students from African countries to learn about oceanography.The general circulation of the ocean is strongly constrained by the pathways that kinetic and available potential energy take from the basin-scale forces that inject them to centimeter scales, where they are depleted. To determine the ocean's response to future climate scenarios, these energetic pathways, from forcing to dissipation, must be understood and quantified. Previous studies have established the importance of mesoscale and submesoscale circulations to the kinetic energy route to dissipation, and of near-inertial and tidal IWs to the available-potential energy route to mixing, but a comprehensive study of the coupling between the two routes and the role of the eddy-wave interactions has not been carried out. Here the realistic simulations together with idealized simulations that will methodically investigate the interactions under variable stratification, rotation, and forcing magnitudes, will greatly advance the understanding of present and future oceanic energy distributions. The work will advance current understanding of ocean energetics, and will guide the development of diffusive parameterizations that take into account the combined spatiotermporal contributions of the different phenomena to energy mixing and dissipation. These parameterizations can be implemented in climate models and improve climate projections. In addition, this work will greatly ameliorate the interpretability of present and future satellite sea-surface height observations, whose analysis will be complicated by incoherent internal wave signals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.