2024 Ocean Mixing Gordon Research Conference and Seminar
Abstract
We request ONR funding to support the 2024 Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Mixing, as well as the Gordon Research Seminar for early career scientists. Ocean mixing, which can loosely be defined as time-variable motion which increases fluxes of tracers above levels set by molecular diffusion, encompasses a wide variety of processes taking place over a large range of scales, from the 10-100km scales of mesoscale geostrophic eddies down to the smallest scales of isotropic turbulence. Between these scales many different instability processes (e.g. shear instability, convective instability, symmetric and centrifugal instability) excite motions which lead to mixing. All these processes, except for the largest mesoscale eddies, have in common scales which are too small to explicitly simulate in the ocean component of climate models, requiring parameterizations of their impact on tracer fluxes to accurately capture their effect on the large-scale ocean. The development of parameterizations requires experts in different aspects of ocean mixing - observations, theory, process simulation, laboratory experiments, regional and climate modeling - to work together. This Gordon Research Conference is intended to stimulate this collaboration between scientists using different approaches and focused on different scales, to better understand the difficult problem of ocean turbulence. This Gordon Research Seminar provides a forum for early career scientists to network with their peers and engage in professional development prior to the main conference. While ocean mixing is still poorly understood, it has important impacts in many areas of societal relevance. Small-scale mixing processes are recognized to play an important role in setting the stratification of the ocean, fluxes of heat and chemical constituents between the ocean and adjacent atmosphere or ice, and fluxes of nutrients into the euphotic zone, leading to impacts on climate (e.g. ocean heat and carbon uptake, sea-level rise, the meridional overturning circulation, melting of sea-ice and ice-shelves), weather (e.g. hurricane intensity), pollution (e.g. marine plastics, anthropogenic effluents) and ecosystems (e.g. hypoxia). More recently, as the possible role of the ocean in mitigating climate and ecosystem changes is being explored, the possible changes to mixing resulting from ocean renewable energy (e.g. offshore wind, ocean thermal energy conversion) and influence of ocean mixing on enhanced ocean carbon dioxide removal must also be considered. Through ONR support, the 2024 Ocean Mixing GRC and GRS will: (1) provide a forum toimprove the broader community#s understanding of turbulent mixing in the ocean, including the interactions across scales, and the applications to problems such as climate and ocean solutions; (2) foster an inclusive ocean mixing community by promoting new interactions between people working on different aspects, using different approaches, and at varied career levels, through focused discussions and facilitated informal networking activities. ONR support will help to eliminate financial barriers to participation and will be explicitly used to support attendance of early career scientists and scientists from historically under-represented groups, broadening and strengthening the scientific effort.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312741
Entities
People
- Sonya Legg
Organizations
- Gordon Research Conferences
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy