Collaborative Research: Rotationally Constrained Convection

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

0137347/Julien The main aims of this proposal are to develop a better understanding of mixing during the active phase of deep open-ocean convection and to obtain parameterizations of temperature and salinity changes occurring during convection. Its physical novelty is that it includes the study of physical processes not previously examined in detail, including: (a) vortical interactions between plumes and (b) slant-wise convection. The study will use ambitious numerical simulations to examine the dynamics of turbulent ensembles of convective plumes and will include the effect of the horizontal component of the Earth's rotation vector. Simulations will use both the full Boussinesq equations as well as less stiff, asymptotically reduced sets of dynamical equations developed by the PIs. The information on the lateral stirring and penetration of strong convective events in the upper ocean that will be developed in this project will be used to improve parameterizations of open-ocean convection in large-scale ocean models of the sort used to study global ocean circulation and climate.