CAREER: Using Tracer Interrelationships to Understand Large-Scale Geophysical Flows and their Changes

该项目将探索一种新的方法来了解平流层中的风和海洋中的洋流的大尺度模式的历史。这些风和洋流是全球气候的重要组成部分，影响平流层的辐射、臭氧层的恢复以及深海中热量和碳的储存。示踪剂是一种浓度很小的物质，它跟随流体的流动。野火烟雾可以作为示踪物；美国西部火灾产生的烟雾随喷流而来，将空气污染一路带到东海岸，形成一个从太空都能看到的大烟柱。二氧化碳是一种微量气体，没有明显的化学损失，因此可以用来检查输送二氧化碳的风或洋流的性质。长期以来，不同示踪剂之间的关系一直被用来定性描述风和洋流；例如，对海洋中非常高的盐分含量和高温的测量表明，水始于地中海的表面，即使测量是在大西洋中部进行的。仅仅是高温或高含盐量不会得出同样的结论。该项目涉及开发和应用理论，利用不同示踪剂之间的定量关系来研究平流层风和海洋流的全球模式的趋势。对不同示踪剂的测量在海洋中可以追溯到一个多世纪，在平流层可以追溯到近70年，因此，利用它们之间的关系来理解风和洋流的能力可能会释放大量数据，并以一种新的方式进行分析，提供有关全球范围的风和洋流历史的信息。这项工作将通过研究深海中碳的储存以及决定臭氧层恢复速度的化学物质，为这些风和洋流如何影响辐射和气候提供新的见解。作为该项目的一部分，将对三名研究生进行培训。示踪剂是可视化流动的最佳方法之一，因此是了解流体运动的极佳方法。PI将开发课程，将流体实验带到一系列大学水平的课堂上，使用由乐高组件制成的廉价设备和厨房转盘。此外，作为这些工作的一部分，将开发和提供平流层科学教材，包括教科书和编程活动。该奖项反映了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 will explore a new method to understand the history of the large-scale patterns of winds in the stratosphere and currents in the ocean. These winds and currents are important components of the global climate, affecting radiation in the stratosphere, the recovery of the ozone layer, and the storage of heat and carbon in the deep ocean. A tracer is a substance that has a small concentration and follows the flow of a fluid. Wildfire smoke can be a tracer; smoke from fires in the Western United States follows the jet stream, bringing air pollution all the way to the east coast in a large plume that can be seen from space. Carbon dioxide is a trace gas that has no appreciable chemical losses, so it can be used to examine the properties of the winds or currents that are transporting it. The relationships between different tracers have long been used to qualitatively describe winds and currents; for example, measurements of very high salt content and high temperature in the ocean demonstrate that the water started at the surface in the Mediterranean, even if the measurement is taken in the middle of the Atlantic. Just high temperature or high salt content would not lead to the same conclusion. This project involves developing and applying theory to use relationships between different tracers quantitatively to examine trends in the global patterns of winds in the stratosphere and currents in the ocean. Measurements of different tracers go back well over a century in the ocean and nearly 70 years in the stratosphere, and so the ability to use relationships between them to understand the winds and currents potentially unlocks a vast quantity of data to be analyzed in a new way that provides information about the history of global-scale winds and currents. This work will provide new insights into how these winds and currents affect radiation and climate by examining the storage of carbon in the deep ocean and the chemicals that set the rate of the recovery of the ozone layer. Three graduate students will be trained as part of this project. Tracers are one of the best ways to visualize the flow and are therefore excellent for learning about fluid motion. The PI will develop curricula that bring fluid experiments to a range of college-level classes with an inexpensive apparatus made of Lego components and a kitchen turntable. In addition, stratospheric science teaching materials, including a textbook and programming activities, will be developed and made available as part of these efforts.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.