Collaborative Research: CMG: Lagrangian Analysis of Oceanic Transport

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

This project will take techniques for identifying finite-time approximations to invariant manifolds in simple dynamical systems, further develop these so that they can be applied to complex, time-dependent fluid flows containing many coherent structures, and then use the improved techniques to examine transport in flows near strongly eddying oceanic fronts. A particular goal is to quantify the role of non-local transport events in the stirring produced by coherent structures and to examine the relation between Lagrangian dispersion statistics and the degree of hyperbolicity of the flow field. The project will extend two-dimensional lobe dynamics to quasi-three-dimensional flows. The oceanic flows to be studied are high-resolution, general circulation model representations of the Loop Current system in the Gulf of Mexico and of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic.