Shipboard measurements of subduction and stirring of spice in the Norwegian Sea
Abstract
Sound propagation in the Nordic Seas is sensitive to variations in temperature and salinity on multiple embedded space and time scal es. Some of these variations reflect mesoscale vari-ability of confluent water masses, which may be reasonably well predicted in reg ional forecast models. However it is increasingly clear that both propagation and scattering of sound through upper ocean ducts is s ensitive to finer scale fluctuations that are not included in forecast models. Some of these features arise from complex subduction and stirring patterns of spice (patterns of temperature and salinity that combine to have a neutral effect on ocean density, but an amplified effect on sound speed). Here we propose to contribute novel high resolution shipboard sampling to i) attain high resolutio n snapshots of temperature, salinity and sound speed fluctuations on a range of scales, in coordination with other physical oceanogr aphic and acoustic colleagues, and ii) explore and understand the dynamicalprocesses that mediate upper ocean subduction, stirring a nd mixing, as a step towards developing better model parameterizations. The tools proposed include both a rapid profiling Fast CTD s ystem, and a new towed version of a Phased Array Doppler Sonar being developed with ONR support. The proposed instrumentation will p rovide the horizontal and vertical resolution necessary to map the small scale features relevant to upper ocean sound speed propagat ion and spice subduction and stirring.This abstract is approved for public release
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 07, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112739
Entities
People
- Anna C. Savage
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego