Model and Observational Studies of the High Latitude Oceans

该提案的主题重点是北极、加拿大北极群岛和拉布拉多海的气候和海洋动态。北极和亚北极地区预计将经历特别大的幅度变化，以应对全球变暖。海冰的消失和大陆冰盖的融化是戏剧性的，变化的速度是前所未有的。 CAA是一个连接北冰洋和大西洋的复杂的海峡和盆地网络。整个CAA的北部社区依赖于这种沿海环境来运输和海洋资源。这是一个海洋学复杂的地区，在这里，CAA的许多渠道形成了一条复杂的海水管道，从北极和太平洋流向大西洋，通过CAA和其他地区输送营养物质、污染物和生物群。CAA将是下个世纪除格陵兰岛和南极洲以外最大的冰冻圈海平面上升贡献者。 利用高分辨率数值模拟，我们提出了两个与CAA和北冰洋有关的问题。北极水域通过哪些渠道(以及具体的水量和淡水通量)从加拿大盆地流经CAA进入大西洋？储存在北冰洋波弗特环流内的大量淡水将会有怎样的命运？它将如何影响CAA？ 加拿大东海岸外的拉布拉多海是深海与大气直接交换气体的少数海洋地区之一。局部的深对流向大气释放了大量的热量，由此产生的拉布拉多海水促进了全球海洋温盐循环，将热量从低纬度重新分配到两极。分层变化可能来自直接的表面变暖，以及格陵兰和加拿大的积雪、多年的海冰和冰川融化带来的淡水输入的增加。随着北方高地变暖的速度加快，多种淡水来源现在汇聚到拉布拉多海，有可能扰乱区域和全球范围内的深层对流、经向海洋热量输送、气候和海洋生物地球化学。 利用历史数据分析以及高分辨率数值模拟，我们提出了与北极/CAA和亚极地北大西洋相互作用有关的问题。第一个关键问题是，从北冰洋和格陵兰冰盖输送的淡水将如何(以及有多少)被拉布拉多海和亚极地北大西洋吸收？我们能确定这种运输是否在增加吗？看看亚极地北大西洋对高纬度地区的影响，我们还想知道亚极地大西洋中暖伊明格水的路径是什么，这些暖水团是否会渗透到CAA？我们在这里的目标是提高我们对海水往返包含主要潮水冰川的峡湾的运输的理解。

The thematic focus of the proposal is climate and ocean dynamics in the Arctic, Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) and the Labrador Sea. The Arctic and subarctic regions are expected to experience particularly large amplitude changes in response to global warming. Loss of sea ice and melting of continental ice caps are dramatic and the rate of change unprecedented. The CAA is a complex network of straits and basins connecting the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Northern communities across the CAA rely on this coastal environment for transportation and marine resources. It is an oceanographically complex area where the many channels of the CAA form a complex conduit of seawater that flows from the Arctic and the Pacific to the Atlantic, delivering nutrients, contaminants and biota through the CAA and beyond. The CAA will be the largest cryospheric contributor to sea level rise in the next century beyond Greenland and Antarctica. Using high resolution numerical modelling we ask a pair of questions related to the CAA and the Arctic Ocean. By what channels (and with what specific volume and freshwater fluxes) do Arctic waters flow from the Canada Basin, through the CAA, and into the Atlantic? What will be the fate of the large amount of freshwater stored within the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Ocean and how will it impact the CAA? The Labrador Sea, off the east coast of Canada, is one of the few oceanic regions where the deep ocean exchanges gases directly with the atmosphere. Localized deep convection releases large amounts of heat to the atmosphere and the resulting Labrador Sea Water contributes to the global ocean thermohaline circulation that redistributes heat from low latitudes to the poles. Stratification changes may come from direct surface warming as well as the enhanced freshwater input from the melting of snow, multi-year sea ice and glaciers in Greenland and Canada. With the accelerating rate of warming in the high North, multiple sources of freshwater now converge on the Labrador Sea, with the potential to disrupt deep convection, meridional ocean heat transport, climate, and ocean biogeochemistry at regional and global scales. Using both historical data analysis, as well as high resolution numerical modelling, we ask questions related to the interactions of the Arctic/CAA and the sub-polar North Atlantic. The first key question is how (and how much) will the freshwater being routed from the Arctic Ocean and the Greenland ice sheet be taken up in the Labrador Sea and the sub-polar North Atlantic Ocean? Can we determine if this transport is increasing? Looking at the impact of the sub-polar North Atlantic on the higher latitudes, we also ask what are the pathways for warm Irminger Water in the sub-polar Atlantic and does this warm water mass penetrate into the CAA? Our goal here is to improve our understanding of the transport of oceanic water to and from the fjords that contain major tidewater glaciers.