Stephanie Waterman
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    • Eddy Geometry
    • Shelf-Basin Exchange on the BC Central Coast
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    • Western Boundary Current Jets
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    • Measuring Turbulence From Gliders
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Mixing rates & mechanisms in the Arctic Ocean
Picture
Picture
Image: M. Chanona
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.
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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.

People:
  • Benjamin Scheifele
  • Melanie Chanona
  • Jacquie-Lee Epstein
  • Hayley Dosser
  • Jeff Carpenter (Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht)
  • Lucas Merckelbach (Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht)
  • Paul Myers (University of Alberta)
  • Yves Gratton (Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique)​


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Select Papers & Presentations:

  • A paper by Ph.D. student Benjamin Scheifele about measuring turbulence in the strongly-stratified, low-energy Arctic environment published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans in 2018.
  • The 2018 M.Sc. thesis of Jacquie-Lee Epstein “The Impact of Internal Tide Mixing Parameterizations in an Eddy-Permitting Model of the Arctic Ocean” 
  • A poster by Ph.D. student Benjamin Scheifele about turbulence measurements in the Amundsen Gulf presented at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland USA.
  • A presentation by Ph.D. student Melanie Chanona about the variability of inferred internal wave-driven dissipation, diffusivity, and stratification in the Canadian Arctic Ocean presented at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland USA.
  • A non-specialist presentation about using an ocean robot to map Arctic Ocean mixing rates presented at the 2017 Commonwealth Science Conference in Singapore.

In the News:

  • An article in the SCOR Canadian Ocean Science Newsletter in 2016 about our group’s work on mixing rates, mechanisms and impacts in the Arctic Ocean.