Western Boundary Current Jet Dynamics
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Given my interests in eddy-mean flow interactions, it is natural to be interested in the dynamics of Western Boundary Current (WBC) jets such as the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Extensions. These jets are among the most energetic current systems in the world ocean, and are of fundamental importance to the dynamics of basin-scale circulations as regions of enhanced exchange of potential vorticity and energy, and by acting to restore global balances between forcing and dissipation. They are also global hotspots for eddy energy, and interactions between eddies and the larger-scale flow play a critical role in the system dynamics.
During my Ph.D. I had the awesome opportunity to be part of the NSF-funded Kuroshio Extension System Study (KESS) that aimed, in part, to better understand the dynamic and thermodynamic processes governing the intense meandering and eddy variability of the Kuroshio Extension jet, the western boundary current jet extension of the North Pacific, and the interactions between the jet, its recirculation gyres and this eddy variability. It involved an ambitious deployment of state-of-the-art instruments in a 4-dimensional, mesoscale-resolving array at the downstream location of the jet's highest variability for a period of two years. KESS provides an observational data set that is uniquely suited to address questions of how our theoretical ideas about eddy-mean flow interactions in unstable jets apply in the actual ocean. It sparked an on-going interest in the dynamics of these jets more generally, which we continue to study primarily using idealized numerical models. Our most recent work has focused on eddy geometry and mixing in WBC jet systems. |
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