OSMOSIS: Ocean Surface Mixing, Ocean Sub-mesoscale Interaction Study

大气和海洋控制着地球的气候。海洋表面边界层（OSBL）是海洋的上层300米左右，是海洋中直接受大气影响的部分。因此，OSBL的作用是将大气和更深的海洋结合在一起：它调节热量、动量和二氧化碳等重要温室气体的传递，并控制生长在海洋表面边界层的浮游生物的营养供应。此外，海洋表面的温度对天到季节的时间尺度的天气预报也有影响。海面温度很大程度上是由OSBL设定的。很明显，海洋表面边界层确实是天气和气候的核心。但我们对OSBL的认识非常不完整，这意味着我们的定量模型并不准确。尽管如此，这是一个非常激动人心的时刻，因为我们对控制其从几天到几年的时间尺度演变的基本过程有了新的想法，我们也有了令人兴奋的新工具来测量海洋表面边界层。OSMOSIS将汇集一组具有理论、计算机建模和观测背景的气象学家和海洋学家，旨在逐步改变我们对OSBL的理解和预测能力。我们将结合新的理论和新的测量方法来做到这一点。我们将利用强大的新计算工具将理论发展成OSBL的基本物理，这使我们能够模拟OSBL中水的三维、时变运动。通过对这些计算结果的仔细分析，我们将开发可用于天气和预报模式的更简单的OSBL表示。将计划两次研究巡航和一系列仪器连接到固定系泊处，以测量OSBL的详细程度，这是以前从未尝试过的。这些巡航将使我们能够近距离观察OSBL在不同天气情况下的演变。停泊处将收集一整年的数据，这些数据将向我们展示OSBL的季节性演变。这些数据将为我们新的理论思想和更简单的表述提供严格的检验。最后，我们正在与英国气象局和欧洲中期天气预报中心合作进行这项研究。我们将与他们密切合作进行项目，他们的参与将确保我们的结果对天气和气候预报的实践产生影响。

The atmosphere and oceans control the Earth's climate. The ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) is the upper 300m or so of the oceans and it is the part of the ocean that is directly affected by the atmosphere. So the OSBL acts to couple the atmosphere and deeper oceans together: it mediates the transfer of heat, momentum and important greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, and controls the supply of nutrients to the plankton that grow in the ocean surface boundary layer. In addition the temperature of the sea surface has an impact on weather forecasts for timescales of days to seasons. The sea surface temperature is largely set by the OSBL. It is clear then that the ocean surface boundary layer it truly at the heart of weather and climate. But our knowledge of the OSBL is very incomplete, and this means our quantitative models are not accurate. Nevertheless, it is a very exciting time to be doing research into the OSBL because we have new ideas about the fundamental processes that control the its evolution from timescales of days to years, and we also have exciting new tools to measure the ocean surface boundary layer. OSMOSIS will bring together a team of meteorologists and oceanographers with backgrounds in theory, computer modelling and observations, with the aim of making a step change to our understanding and our predictive power of the OSBL. We shall do this with a combination of new theory and new measurements. We will develop theory into the fundamental physics of the OSBL using the powerful new computational tools, which allow us to simulation the three-dimensional, time varying motions of the water in the OSBL. By careful analysis of the results of these computations we shall develop simpler representations of the OSBL that can be used in weather and forecast models. Will plan two research cruises and a range of instruments attached to fixed moorings to measure the OSBL at a level of detail never previously attempted. The cruises will enable us to observe at close quarters how the OSBL evolves under different weather regimes. The moorings will be left to gather data over a whole year, which will show us the seasonal evolution of the OSBL. These data will provide stringent tests for our new theoretical ideas, and our simpler representations. Finally, we are doing this research in conjunction with the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather forecasting. We shall work closely with them doing the project, and their involvement will ensure that our results make a difference to the practise of weather and climate forecasting.