Transport and Modification of Near-Surface and Intermediate Waters by the Gulf Stream along the US East Coast

墨西哥湾流是全球气候系统的重要组成部分，它将温暖的沃茨从热带地区输送到中纬度地区。尽管进行了数十年的研究，但对墨西哥湾流在沿着美国东海岸流动时携带的水量和类型的了解仍然不完整，部分原因是历史上地下数据稀少。自主水下滑翔机的最新观测结果以及浮标等其他平台的长期观测结果将用于研究沿着整个美国东海岸的墨西哥湾流输送。这项研究将研究墨西哥湾流如何沿其流动路径沿着变化，确定其水特征的变化，并评估未来观测这一重要洋流的需求。分析的结果对于与海洋环流的数值模式进行比较也是有价值的。该项目将支持博士学位。学生将积极参与项目的各个方面，包括数据处理，分析和结果的发布。研究结果将纳入麻省理工学院-WHOI联合项目和暑期本科生项目的教育工作中，如WHOI暑期学生研究员项目和伍兹霍尔合作教育项目。PI和学生将继续参与展示研究的媒体和公共活动。这项工作在很大程度上依赖于在过去几年中收集的超过150个高分辨率滑翔机断面的前所未有的集合。建立在以前的工作与滑翔机观测的子集，分析将利用完整的，多年的一套观测，从其他平台的测量补充，全面检查墨西哥湾流的时间平均体积和温度传输的空间变异性沿着美国东海岸。没有这样的检查西部边界电流以前可能从观察，所以这些结果将作为关键基准。现有的数据集仅滑翔机就提供了20 000多份水文剖面图，还提供了一个独特的机会，可以研究沿着大陆边地下水团的分布和变化情况，从而更好地了解这些水团在气候系统中的作用。分析的产品，如时间平均传输作为沿流距离的函数，可用于验证数值模型和指导全球边界电流观测工作。作为该项目的一部分进行的分析将指导全面和适合于该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估，被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。

The Gulf Stream is a major part of the global climate system transporting warm waters from the tropics toward mid-latitudes. Despite decades of study, understanding of the quantity and types of water carried by the Gulf Stream as it flows along the US East Coast remains incomplete, in part due to historically sparse subsurface data. Recent observations from autonomous underwater gliders as well as long-term observations from other platforms such as buoys, will be used to examine Gulf Stream transport along the entire US East Coast. The research will examine how the Gulf Stream varies along its flow path, identify changes in its water characteristics, and evaluate future needs for observing this important ocean current. The results of the analysis should also be valuable for comparing with numerical models of the ocean circulation. This project will support a Ph.D. student who will be actively involved in all aspects of the project, including data processing, analysis, and publication of results. Results will be incorporated in educational efforts for the MIT-WHOI Joint Program and summer undergraduate programs such as the WHOI Summer Student Fellow program and the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program. The PI and student will continue to participate in media and public events that showcase the research.This work relies heavily on an unprecedented set of over 150 high-resolution glider-based transects across the Gulf Stream that have been collected over the past several years. Building on previous work with subsets of the glider observations, the analyses will make use of the full, multi-year set of observations, complemented by measurements from other platforms, to comprehensively examine spatial variability in the time-mean volume and temperature transport of the Gulf Stream along the US East Coast. No such examination of a western boundary current has previously been possible from observations, so these results will serve as key benchmarks. With over 20,000 hydrographic profiles from gliders alone, the available data set also offers a unique opportunity to examine the distribution and modification of subsurface water masses along the continental margin, which will lead to better understanding of the role of those water masses in the climate system. Products of the analyses, such as time-mean transports as a function of along-stream distance, can be used for the validation of numerical models and for guiding boundary current observational efforts globally. Analyses carried out as part of this project will guide the development of comprehensive and fit-for-purpose observing systems for the Gulf Stream and other western boundary currents and will be disseminated to the communities engaged in the planning and developing a global boundary current observing network.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.