EXport Pathways Out of the Southern ocean and the Effect on anthropogenic carbon sequestration (Expose)

新的方法将被应用于海洋计算机模型模拟的层次结构，以解决气候科学面临的一个主要问题：如何将大气中释放的人为碳注入并锁定在南大洋表面以下1公里处的更深处？世界海洋吸收了很大一部分人类活动排放的二氧化碳，从而减缓了气候变化的速度。南大洋寒冷多风，有利于二氧化碳与大气的交换。因此，世界海洋中固存的碳有一半是通过南大洋表面转移的，因此为气候变化提供了重要的缓冲。建议研究海洋表面和深海内部连接的动力学。是水团和碳缓慢而均匀地扩散到深海，还是相反，有狭窄而强烈的碳高速公路潜入深海。稀疏的海洋观测倾向于显示后者，但这些路径的动力学和局部化从未被研究过。这与这些出口对气候产生强烈而直接影响的证据不符。该项目的目标是收集最近开发的各种非常强大的补充工具，以适用于南大洋碳汇动态这一具体问题。具体地说，我们将调查输出深海水团和碳的洋流来自哪里，以及它们的输出率是多少。但更重要的是，使用各种计算机模型模拟，我们将调查控制本地化和出口速度的过程是什么。如果我们要预测南大洋的碳封存在未来是否可能发生变化，并对气候产生重大影响，这是一个重大问题。这一处于物理学和生物地球化学交叉路口的项目将取长补短，将有助于对南大洋环流动态的新洞察，并将对气候反馈产生影响，这将导致我们对气候的理解和预测未来变化的能力取得重大进展。

Copied from lead grant document.New approaches will be applied to a hierarchy of ocean computer model simulations to address a major issue facing climate science: how anthropogenic carbon released in the atmosphere is injected and locked away at more at 1 km below the Southern Ocean surface ? The World's oceans slow the rate of climate change by absorbing a large proportion of CO2 emission due to human activity. The Southern Ocean is cold and windy, which favours the exchange of CO2 with the atmosphere. As a result, half of the carbon sequestrated in the world's oceans has been transferred through the Southern Ocean surface, providing therefore a significant buffer for climate change. It is proposed to study the dynamics of the connection between the ocean surface and the deep ocean interior. Are water-masses and carbon slowly and uniformly diffused toward the deep sea or conversely are there narrow and intense carbon motorways plunging in the deep sea. Sparse ocean observations tend to show the latter, but the dynamics and the localisation of these pathways have never been studied. This is at odds with the evidence that these exports have a strong and direct impact on climate. The goal of this project is to gather a variety of recently developed very powerful and complementary tools to apply to the specific question of the dynamics of the Southern Ocean carbon sequestration. Specifically, we will investigate where the currents exporting water-masses and carbon in the deep ocean layers form and what is their rate of export. But more importantly, using a variety of computer model simulations we will investigate what are the processes that control the localisation and rates of export. This is a major question if we are to predict whether Southern Ocean carbon sequestration is likely to change in the future, with dramatic impact on climate. This project at the cross-road of physics and biogeochemistry will extract the best of each, will contribute to new insight into the dynamics of the Southern Ocean circulation and will have implications for climate feedbacks that will lead to major advances in our understanding of climate and in our ability to predict future change.