Stratification at Ocean Fronts

Abstract

We propose to expand the analysis of novel observations collected during the ONR AESOP DRI to investigate the dynamics that drive upper ocean stratification. Repeat synoptic surveys conducted by Triaxus provides 4???D fields of temperature, salinity, horizontal velocity, and biogeochemical tracers of oxygen and chlorophyll, while the float provides a Lagrangian view of temperature and salinity as well as horizontal and vertical velocity at the depth of the float. AESOP observations collected in the California Current and Kuroshio Extension will be used to address questions that include:-How is buoyancy being rearranged to create stratification? Is it a result of surface fluxes or lateral advection? What processes are responsible for the ageostrophic transport of buoyancy?-What is the impact of these dynamics and the resulting stratification (or lack thereof) on the distribution of tracers in observations? How does this fit within the current theoretical framework describing frontal re???stratification? How well is this captured by the parameterizations?

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Jul 27, 2018
Source ID
N000141812694

Entities

People

  • Craig Lee

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of Washington

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers