Boundary Current and Mixing Processes in the High Latitude Oceans
Abstract
This project s overarching goal has been to quantitatively expand our understanding of turbulent mixing, those processes that control it, and its impacts, in those high latitude regions of the global ocean where dense water is formed and sinks to the deep basins. The interest in high latitudes reflects their function as primary source regions for the deep waters that drive the meridional overturning circulation (MOC), a primary component of the mean global ocean circulation. The emphasis on boundaries reflects a concentration at or near boundaries of those processes responsible for deep water formation and initial subduction. Despite the importance of quantifying and better understanding those processes, including mixing, that impact the supply of deep and bottom water to the global ocean, these remote areas remain data-poor and not well understood in comparison with other oceanic regions. As this project has evolved, it has narrowed its focus to the Antarctic zone of the Southern Ocean and its role in formation of Antarctic Bottom Water. The Antarctic zone is taken here to mean the region between the southern edge of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Antarctic continental margins. Processes in this region provide excellent, and in some cases extreme, examples of mixing-related phenomena that are active throughout the world oceans and can significantly broaden our parameter spectrum related to such phenomena. Improved understanding of these processes, which typically have length scales well below the grid sizes used in present-day coupled global ocean climate models (GCMs), can lead to improved parameterizations of the processes in GCMs, enabling them to better represent high latitude processes that drive the MOC.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA573377
Entities
People
- Robin D. Muench