The goal of this Climate Process Team is to formulate and test parameterizations for internal wave mixing in the ocean interior for inclusion in state of the art coupled climate models. Mixing by internal waves is thought to be a primary mechanism governing the overall thermohaline structure of the oceans, and may have significant implications for climate variability. The project promises to reduce the uncertainty in climate prediction associated with the smallest scale physical processes that cannot be explicitly solved by climate models. The project will address three aspects of ocean mixing: near field mixing at internal wave generation sites, mixing due to breakdown of internal wave energy transported in the wave field, and far field mixing due to breakdown of internal wave energy away from sources. Parameterizations will be based on data-based relations for wave physics, radiation balance theory, and results from process models. In addition to be being based on sound theoretical ideas, the parameterizations will also be based on observational results from the growing data set of microstructure observations.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE)
Application #
0968783
Program Officer
Eric C. Itsweire
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2010-06-15
Budget End
2015-05-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$629,876
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109