Vertical and horizontal mixing by turbulence in the North Indian Ocean
Abstract
The North Indian Ocean is distinguished by copious fresh water inputs associated to rivers and the monsoon, a plethora of submesoscale features including salinity fronts over a wide range of scales, and thin mixed layers capped by strong haloclines. The largely unknown coupling between lateral and vertical processes that ultimately determine sea surface temperature presents a challenge to the high-? fidelity prediction of the ocean component of the coupled ocean-?atmosphere dynamics underlying the Indian Monsoon. We propose high-?resolution large eddy simulation (LES) to address these knowledge gaps. Idealized numerical experiments, steered by observations, will be performed to quantify boundary layer turbulence in the upper ocean as well as lateral stirring and mixing at strong salinity fronts. These process studies will help interpret observational data being collected as part of the ongoing Air Sea Interaction in the Northern Indian Ocean -? Regional Initiative (ASIRI) experiment funded by ONR. The benchmark LES results and parameterizations being developed will also assist in mixing models that constitute a pacing item for the fidelity of ocean model forecasts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512613
Entities
People
- Sutanu Sarkar
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego