Collaborative Research: Coupling of Trade Winds with the Ocean's Subtropical Cells

热带地区的能量输送是一种耦合现象，大气和海洋都发挥着重要作用。虽然对跨赤道能量通量的大气部分已经进行了很好的研究，但对海洋跨赤道能量通量的动态却知之甚少。众所周知，热量主要通过副热带环流（STC）在低纬度海洋中传输，这些环流由信风驱动。这些推动表面沃茨远离赤道，在那里它们在高纬度俯冲，然后通过复杂的路径返回深处。这项研究将推进STCs和信风之间的耦合，以及这些高纬度能量不平衡的响应的知识。对这种耦合的深入理解将有助于我们更好地了解热带海洋如何输送能量、热带降水的变化过程以及全球海洋环流扰动与热带气旋之间的关系。本研究旨在探讨海洋副热带气旋（STC）与信风之间的耦合，以及这种耦合如何调节热带降水带的迁移。这项工作包括利用将作为研究一部分开发的一系列大气-海洋耦合模型对观测结果进行分析和对关键过程进行调查。该项目的重点是海洋盆地的区域规模，寻求更好地了解如何在理想化的，带状对称的情况下提出的论点适用于更现实的设置。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Energy transport in the tropics is a coupled phenomenon, with both the atmosphere and the ocean playing important roles. While the atmospheric component of cross-equatorial energy fluxes has been well studied, the dynamics of oceanic cross-equatorial energy fluxes are much less well understood. It is known that heat is primarily transported in the ocean at low latitudes by the Subtropical Cells (STCs), which are driven by the trade winds. These push surface waters away from the equator, where they are subducted at higher latitudes and then return at depth via complex pathways. This research will advance knowledge of the coupling between the STCs and the trade-winds, and the responses of these to high latitude energy imbalances. Improved understanding of this coupling will improve knowledge of how energy is transported by tropical oceans, the processes governing variability of tropical precipitation and the relationship between perturbations to the global ocean circulation and the STCs.This is a study to investigate the coupling between the oceanic subtropical cells (STCs) and the trade-winds, and how that coupling modulates the migration of tropical precipitation belts. The work includes both analysis of observations and investigations of key processes using a hierarchy of coupled atmosphere-ocean models, to be developed as part of the study. The project focuses on the regional scale of ocean basins, seeking to better understand how arguments made in idealized, zonally symmetric situations apply to more realistic settings. It will also investigate how the dynamics of the STCs are affected by perturbations in the global ocean circulation.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.