Collaborative Research: FOCUS: Florida Current and Sea Level

该项目将调查佛罗里达沿海海平面变化与墨西哥湾流水热输送变化之间的关系。为了实现这一目标，该项目将在佛罗里达和巴哈马群岛之间的横断面上使用电流速度、压力和声音信号的现场测量。这一项目的结果应该有助于解释佛罗里达州，也许还有美国其他沿海地区，晴天洪水加剧的原因。结果还应有助于阐明区域尺度上墨西哥流输送的变化与全球尺度上的海洋运动和热量含量之间的联系。调查人员将与佛罗里达州东南部一个县的复原力项目经理密切互动，该县受到来自海洋的洪水日益频繁的影响。这项研究试图了解墨西哥湾流在时间和正常流向上的输送可变性与沿海海平面可变性之间的关系。墨西哥湾流输送变化和沿海海平面波动之间的脱钩假设与佛罗里达海峡质量负荷和热含量的变化模式有关；这些模式在不同的时间尺度上影响热量输送和沿海海平面；了解这些模式将增进对AMOC热量输送和沿海洪水风险的理解。这些目标和假设将在5年内通过测量监测佛罗里达州海流的传输电缆纬度上的电流、压力和倒置回声探测仪(CPIES)来进行研究。分析将把墨西哥湾流的跨岸变化与沿海海平面联系起来。这项研究可能有助于理解佛罗里达州东海岸“晴天洪水”发病率的变异性。结果将与迈阿密-戴德县的复原力项目经理分享。该项目将在西部边界电流的横截面上支持新的CPIES。这一奖励反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will investigate the relationship between sea-level changes in coastal Florida and variations in Gulf Stream transport of water and heat. To address this goal, the project will use in-situ measurements of current velocity, pressure and sound signals as they travel throughout a cross-section between Florida and The Bahamas. Results of this project should help explain reasons for exacerbated 'sunny-day' flooding in Florida, and perhaps other coastal regions of the United States. Results should also help illuminate the linkage between variations in Gulf Stream transport at regional scales and ocean motions and heat content at global scale. Investigators will interact closely with resilience program managers of a county in southeast Florida that is affected by increasingly frequent flooding from the ocean.This study seeks to understand the relationship between Gulf Stream transport variability, in time and in the stream-normal direction, and coastal sea-level variability. Decoupling between Gulf Stream transport variations and coastal sea-level fluctuations is hypothesized to be related to modes of variability in mass loading and heat content across the Florida Straits; that these modes affect heat transport and coastal sea level at different time scales; and that understanding these modes will improve understanding of AMOC heat transport and coastal flood risk. These objectives and hypotheses will be investigated over 5 years with measurements of currents, pressure and inverted echosounders (CPIES) at the latitude of the transport cable that monitors the Florida Current. Analyses will relate cross-shore variability of the Gulf Stream to coastal sea level. The study might help understand the variability in incidence of 'sunny-day flooding' in the east coast of Florida. Results will be shared with the Miami-Dade County's resilience program manager. The project will support new CPIES in the cross-section of a western boundary current.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.