Analyzing vertical ocean transport with Lagrangian coherent structures
Abstract
While mesoscale eddies play a major role in vertical transport in the ocean, it is hypothesized that it is necessary to account for submesoscale eddies and filaments to satisfy the global nutrient budget. These submesoscale features exist throughout the ocean, but strong density fronts such as those in the Alboran Sea are known to produce significant, detectable vertical transport near the ocean surface. Because the horizontal velocities are often an order of magnitude greater than vertical mixing, it can be difficult to quantify the vertical transport of material exclusively from Eulerian methods, so we propose the use of Lagrangian coherent structure analysis to provide a reduced order illustration of the pathways for transport. The goal of this proposal is to develop a real-time method for identifying attracting coherent structures at the surface of the ocean that signal potential downwelling events occurring in the underlying water column. Testing of this method on numerical ocean models will reveal the potential of these structures for predicting future vertical transport. A secondary objective of this proposal is to develop a drifter deployment optimization that best demonstrates both the horizontal and vertical transport near the density front accounting for both ship deployment and front dynamics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 04, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812790
Entities
People
- Michael R Allshouse
Organizations
- Northeastern University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy