Mixing rates & mechanisms in the Arctic Ocean
Image: M. Chanona
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The Arctic Ocean is a rapidly changing environment that is tightly linked to changes in the Earth’s climate. Historically the Arctic Ocean interior has been quiet, and the heat contained in sub-surface waters has been sequestered from contact with the surface by strong stratification and weak mixing rates. However, as more ice melts, we expect the ocean to become increasing turbulent. Accompanying enhanced mixing rates are expected to result in important changes in Arctic Ocean stratification, dense water formation rates, and the properties of the waters exported from the Arctic to the global overturning circulation. Further, there is the potential to mix deep heat upwards, warming surface waters, accelerating the rate of ice melt, and increasing turbulent energies further.
A primary focus of our group is to better understand turbulent mixing rates and mechanisms in the Arctic Ocean in the past, present and future. To do this, we are collecting glider-based measurements of turbulence, mapping the space and time variability of internal wave field energy levels from historical and contemporary observations, and exploring sensitivities to mixing rates and patterns in realistic models of circulation in the region. In all these approaches, we aim not only to quantify turbulent mixing rates and their space-time variability, but also the physical mechanisms that underpin them. In this way, we can better understand the feedbacks associated with current and future changes in the Arctic Ocean system. |
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