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About OAII |
Tony Maxworthy
Siavash Narimousa
Julian A. Domaradzki
University of Southern California
Start Date: March 15, 1993
Expires: February 29, 1996 (Estimated)
Expected Total Amt.: $483,632 (Estimated)
Fld Science: Other Sciences NEC, Environmental NEC
Abstract:
Investigators at the University of Southern California will undertake research to model and investigate some of the important dynamical processes that have been identified in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent Seas. The Arctic Ocean and its adjacent seas play an important role in global warming, and it is important to understand its dynamical behavior on many space and time scales. At several locations during the winter, major sources of dense cold seawater are formed and sink. Much of this water reaches great depths and eventually spreads through the world's ocean basins. This thermo-haline circulation is a major factor in understanding the long-term evolution of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system. This work will examine some aspects of this problem. Primarily, the mechanisms whereby the motion of the dense water that is formed by intense cooling and/or freezing is controlled by the environment in which it is created. Among the issues of interest are: a) The origin and dynamics of small and meso-scale eddy structures that have been observed repeatedly by satellite (IR) images and reported by field investigators at different Arctic locations. b) The formation of a halocline between the upper mixed layer and the underlaying Atlantic water, which tends to shield the ice cover from an upward heat flux. c) The upwelling and/or downwelling processes that have been observed in the marginal ice zones. d) Interaction between the shelf and the basin waters. To accomplish this work, both laboratory experiments and numerical calculations will be made with well defined objectives. A wide range of generic problems will be tackled starting from the simplest convection experiment with a non-uniform heat flux to the most complex in which virtually all of the controlling parameters are incorporated. In this way individual and combined effects of these various inputs can be studied.