Southern Ocean Pathways to Deep Ocean Ventilation

下一个世纪的两个主要环境挑战将是全球海平面和海洋生态系统对海洋迅速变暖的反应，特别是在极地地区。最近，北冰洋和格陵兰许多地方的表面温度和冰融化都有大幅上升的记录，而南极洲则出现了降温，一些地方的冰量增加，另一些地方的冰量减少。要理解这种不对称的半球间趋势背后的原因，就需要理解海洋环流模式。极地冰层突然消失的可能性引发了人们的担忧，除了全球海平面上升威胁欧洲海岸线之外，人们还担心它可能会改变欧洲温和的气候。对于热量和碳在大气和海洋内部之间以及在极地地区和地球仪其他地区之间转移的途径和机制，仍然缺乏足够的了解。由于我们对海洋湍流缺乏充分的了解，我们的认识进展受到了阻碍。此外，海洋温度上升和极地海冰减少可能对北极和南极生态系统的运作产生重大影响，特别是对鱼类、磷虾和企鹅种群。了解导致热量、碳和营养物质在极地海洋横向和纵向混合的机制，对于解释正在发生的区域物理、化学和生物变化至关重要。上层海洋的风和漩涡以及深海的潮汐等因素产生的湍流会促进混合。湍流混合在海洋中混合示踪剂（如热量和碳），就像搅拌咖啡杯中的重奶油一样。因此，项目的主要目标是：1。量化、描述和理解南大洋横向湍流混合和全球海洋垂直混合的空间和时间变化模式.利用我们的发现，通过结合观测数据和最先进的气候模型，重建更准确的海洋环流模式。利用气候模式研究未来几十年到几百年的气候变化，并评估其对区域气候的影响。

Two of the main environmental challenges of the coming century will be the response of global sea levels and marine ecosystems to rapid ocean warming, particularly in the polar regions. Recently, large increases in surface temperature and ice melt have been recorded at many locations in the Arctic Ocean and Greenland, while Antarctica has seen cooling with increase in ice volume at some locations and decrease at others. Understanding the reasons behind this asymmetric inter-hemispheric trend lies in understanding the ocean circulation patterns.The possibility of sudden catastrophic polar ice loss has raised fears over its potential impact on altering Europe's moderate climate in addition to threatening its coastlines due to global sea level rise. There is still insufficient knowledge about the pathways and mechanisms by which heat and carbon are transferred between atmosphere and ocean interior, and between polar regions and the rest of the globe. Progress in our understanding has been hindered by our lack of full grasp of ocean turbulence. Furthermore, the increase in ocean temperature and the reduction in sea ice in the polar regions are likely to have significant impacts on the operation of the Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems, particularly for populations of fish, krill and penguins. Understanding the mechanisms that cause heat, carbon and nutrients to be mixed both laterally and vertically in polar oceans is vital to interpreting the regional physical, chemical and biological changes that are occurring. Mixing if facilitated by turbulence generated by winds and eddies in the upper ocean as well as tides in the abyssal ocean, among other factors. Turbulent mixing mixes tracers (such as heat and carbon) in the ocean just like stirring mixes heavy cream in a coffee cup. The key project objectives are therefore:1. To quantify, describe and understand the spatial and time-varying patterns of lateral turbulent mixing in the Southern Ocean and vertical mixing over the global ocean.2. To employ our findings to reconstruct more accurate ocean circulation patterns by using a combination of observational data and state of art climate models,3. To employ the climate models to study the climate variability over the next decades to centuries and to evaluate its impact on regional climate.