Inverse modeling techniques will be used to resolve the transports in the Southern Ocean as port of the synthesis phase of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE). The box inverse model, applied to circumpolar hydrographic sections following the Subantarctic Front and southern ACC front of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, along with multiple WOCE and other high-quality hydrographic data. The model will explicitly include air-sea transformations to solve for a set of reference velocities and property-dependent effective diapycnal velocities, and corrections to these fluxes consistent with property conservation in neutral density layers. Previous studies of the global thermohaline circulation by means of inverse box models have been severely restricted by their lack of controlling sections within the Southern Ocean, and therefore were not able to distinguish meridional exchanges among the different circulation regimes in the regions south of about 32 S.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0117618
Program Officer
Eric C. Itsweire
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2001-10-01
Budget End
2005-09-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$414,234
Indirect Cost
Name
Florida State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Tallahassee
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32306