Submesoscale currents in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea: vertical transport in the presence of surface interactions
Abstract
Vertical transport from surface to depth in the upper ocean presents a challengeto both measurement and prediction because of its s mall magnitude, itsspatiotemporal intermittency and its uncertain links to environmental forcing.Recent and ongoing work points to the importance of coherent eddy-driven flowconvergences in mediating vertical transport. However, the role of these coherentpathw ays, especially at the submesoscale of O(100 m to 10 km) and in thepresence of surface forcing and boundary-layer turbulence, is no t wellunderstood. Strong convective forcing, driven by cold winds from the north, is ofparticular importance in the Northern Medit erranean Sea. We propose a processstudy to systematically investigate the relative roles of surface buoyancy flux andEkman buoyanc y flux (related to Ekman transport in a background with horizontalbuoyancy gradient) to the vertical transport by submesoscale curr ents. Highresolutionlarge eddy simulation (LES) will be employed. The frontal regions willbe seeded with an ensemble of floats to study the space-time behavior ofsubmesoscale eddies. The associated horizontal and vertical dispersion of floatswill be obtained as a function of frontal and surface forcing parameters.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 07, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112869
Entities
People
- Sutanu Sarkar
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego