Boundary Current and Mixing Processes in The High Latitude Oceans

Abstract

This project s overarching goal is to quantitatively expand our understanding of turbulent mixing processes in high latitude regions of the global ocean. It focuses on high latitudes because: (1) they are primary sites for surface conditioning of deep waters that drive the meridional overturning circulation, a primary component of the mean global ocean circulation, and one that relies on a balance between mixing and other processes; (2) they provide excellent, and in some cases extreme, examples of mixing-related phenomena that are active throughout the world oceans and therefore can broaden our parameter spectrum related to such phenomena; (3) they provide high quality, geophysical scale natural laboratories for field study of these phenomena because of a surface ice cover that stabilizes observation platforms; and (4) these remote areas are data-poor in comparison with the rest of the ocean, despite the importance of quantifying mixing processes and better understanding them within a global context.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2006
Accession Number
ADA630703

Entities

People

  • Robin D. Muench

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Deep Water
  • Diffusion
  • Grids
  • High Latitudes
  • Latitude
  • Layers
  • Oceans
  • Ridges
  • Ross Sea
  • Topography
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Underwater Acoustics
  • Water
  • Water Masses

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.