An increasing amount of observational evidence now points to intense, often long-lived, aticyclonic eddies as one of the outstanding dynamical features in the deeply convecting regions of the world ocean. Yet modeling studies, informed by the more limited observations available in the past, have tended to focus on precisely the opposite case, cyclonic eddies that rapidly disintegrate when subjected to strong surface cooling. Anticyclonic eddies could interact with deep convection in a variety of ways, but their net effect on convective water mass transformation is far from obvious. Their influence must therefore be considered an important unresolved element of the global thermohaline circulation, and by extension, a research problem of substantial societal concern.
It is proposed to investigate the interaction between anticyclonic eddies and convection using a combined modeling and data analysis approach. The detailed behavior of anticyclonic eddies subject to strong surface buoyancy loss will be examined throughout a broad range of parameter space. With the aid of newly developed mathematical and statistical techniques, we will systematically identify and describe coherent eddies in several key convection areas using a variety of high-quality datasets. The net result should be a significant step towards a more complete understanding of deep convection in a realistic setting. This process-oriented work will make possible improved parameterizations of convection in large-scale models, and thus more accurate predictions of climate variability.
