2022 Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Mixing: The Impact of Ocean Mixing on the Earth, Ocean and Atmosphere Systems, Climate and Society

该项目为2022年戈登研究会议和戈登海洋混合研究研讨会提供部分支持。湍流混合是由跨越大范围空间和时间尺度的复杂和混乱的运动引起的。因此，衡量和建模特别具有挑战性，但它会产生广泛而重要的后果。在海洋中，湍流混合控制着热量、淡水、溶解气体和污染物的传输。它对海洋生物学至关重要，因为它既决定了最小浮游生物的流场，也设定了营养物质可获得性的大范围梯度。它对于理解海洋的能量学和减少全球环流和气候模型中的不确定性也至关重要：最近的工作表明，深海混合的时空非均质性可能在气候中发挥关键作用；理解驱动深海混合强度分布的物理机制至关重要。然而，即使经过半个世纪的努力来了解它的全球分布，观测结果仍然很少；仍然需要各种直接和间接的方法来表征导致湍流的动态过程，以及从更大规模的预算中得出混合的推论。因此，利用各种观测技术(直接测量最小尺度上的速度和温度波动、从大规模湍流翻转推断、通过有目的的染料释放观察净混合)、数值和理论方法以及实验室实验，积极研究海洋混合的物理学。最后，通过将前面提到的工作的动力学见解转化为实际的参数化，解决了较大尺度气候模式(不直接解决混合)的混合的后果。作为一个具体的例子，在数值气候模式中使用不同的混合方案，变化预测热带海洋温度超过一度，预测海平面上升超过30厘米。混合是困扰当今模型的最大不确定性来源之一，具有重大的社会相关性。定期举行的关于海洋混合的GRC提供了一个必要的论坛，以增进更广泛的社区对海洋湍流混合的理解，并随之而来的是对从气候变化到支撑我们渔业的全球营养模式的各种深刻和广泛的影响。GRC模式恰恰鼓励跨学科的思考和合作，这对于解决这些社会问题是如此重要。这一GRC尤其帮助我们的科学界成为最具活力和包容性的社区。海洋混合在历史上一直受到多样性差的影响，虽然近年来有所改善，但仍需要新人的涌入，国内和国际合作者之间联系的扩大，以及跨学科互动的增加。NSF的支持将明确用于扩大与会者的人口、专业和地理多样性，通过支持代表不足和资源不足的群体的出席，这些群体将受益于GRC格式的智力环境和网络机会。本次戈登研究会议的目的和范围是为讨论快速发展的海洋混合领域提供一个论坛。重点有三个方面：对世界混合的观察，对控制混合速度的动态的新见解，以及混合对区域和全球流通和预算的影响。后两项包括将动力学洞察转化为有用的东西的参数化的发展，以包括在区域模式和全球数值气候模式中。这一奖项反映了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。

This project provides partial support for the 2022 Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar on Ocean Mixing. Turbulent mixing results from complex and chaotic motions that span a large range of spatial and temporal scales. As such, it is particularly challenging to measure and model, yet it has vast and important consequences. In the ocean, turbulent mixing controls transport of heat, freshwater, dissolved gasses, and pollutants. It is crucial for ocean biology because it both determines the flow field for the smallest plankton, and it sets large-scale gradients of nutrient availability. It is also central to understanding the energetics of the ocean and reducing the uncertainties in global circulation and climate models: recent work has shown that the spatial and temporal non-homogeneity in deep-ocean mixing may play a critical role in climate; understanding the physics that drives the distribution of deep-ocean mixing intensity is critical. Yet even after a half a century of efforts to understand its global distribution, observations are still sparse; a variety of direct and indirect methods are still needed to characterize the dynamical processes that lead to turbulence, and inferences of mixing from larger scale budgets. As such, the physics of ocean mixing is actively studied using a variety of observational techniques (direct measure of velocity and temperature fluctuations at the smallest (mm) scales, inferences from large-scale turbulent overturns, observations of net mixing by purposeful dye release) numerical and theoretical approaches, as well as laboratory experiments. Finally, the consequences of mixing for larger scale climate models (which do not directly resolve mixing) are addressed by turning dynamical insights of the previously mentioned work into practical parameterizations. As a concrete example, using different mixing schemes in numerical climate models changes predicted tropical ocean temperatures by more than a degree and predicted sea level rise by more than 30 cm. Mixing is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty plaguing today’s models with impact of great societal relevance. A regularly held GRC on Ocean Mixing provides a needed forum to improve the broader community’s understanding of turbulent mixing in the ocean, and with it a variety of deep and broad implications for everything from climate change to global nutrient patterns that underlie our fisheries. The GRC format encourages precisely the sort of interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration that is so vital to addressing these societal issues. This GRC, in particular, helps our scientific community be the most vibrant & inclusive it can be. The ocean mixing has historically suffered from poor diversity, which, while improved in recent years, still needs an influx of new people, a broadening of ties amongst domestic and international collaborators, and increased interdisciplinary interactions. NSF support will explicitly be used to expand the demographic, professional and geographic diversity of participants by supporting attendance of under-represented and under-resourced groups who stand to benefit from the intellectual environment and networking opportunities of the GRC format.The purpose and scope of this Gordon Research Conference is to provide a forum for discussion of the rapidly evolving field of ocean mixing. Emphasis is threefold: observations of mixing in the world, new insights into dynamics that control mixing rates, and impacts of mixing on regional and global circulation and budgets. The latter two include development of parameterizations to turn dynamical insights into useful things to include in regional models and global numerical climate models.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.