PARTICULATE ORGANIC MATTER POM IN THE UPPER OCEAN IS SUBJECT TO ADVECTION BY NEAR SURFACE VELOCITIES RELATED TO THE DYNAMICS OF EDDIES FRONTS AND MIXED LAYER INSTABILITIES. THIS ADVECTION INFLUENCES BOTH THE HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF POM. WHENADVECTIVE MOTION IS COUPLED TO THE DIFFERENTIAL SINKING RATES OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF POM A SORTING EFFECT EMERGES. SLOWER SINKING OR NEUTRALLY BUOYANT PARTICLES ARE ADVECTED WITH THE WATER WHILE FASTER SINKING PARTICLES ARE QUICKER TO DESCEND FROM THE SURFACE OCEAN THAT TYPICALLY HAS HIGHER VELOCITIES. IN ORDER TO RELATE THE SURFACE PRODUCTION OF POM TO ITS EXPORT FLUX AT DEPTH WE WILL CONSIDER THEINTERACTION BETWEEN A SUBMESOSCALE RESOLVING FLOW FIELD AND PARTICLES CHARACTERIZED BY A SPECTRUM OF SINKING VELOCITIES. AS THE PARTICLES SINK THEIR MASS AND SINKING VELOCITY MAY BE TRANSFORMED BY REMINERALIZATION AGGREGATION AND DISAGGREGATION.OUR OBJECTIVES ARE 1 TO CHARACTERIZE THE VERTICAL TRANSPORT OF POM AS A FUNCTION OF THE FLOW FIELD THE POM MASS AND SINKING DISTRIBUTIONS AND THE PATCHINESS OF PRODUCTIVITY AND 2 TO ASSESS THE ABILITY OF VARIOUS CONFIGURATIONS OF AN OBSERVING SYSTEM AUTONOMOUS AND SHIP BASED TO CHARACTERIZE THESE FLUXES. OUR RESULTS WILL IMPROVE OUR ABILITY TO INTERPRET OBSERVATIONAL DATA AND TOSUGGEST STRATEGIES FOR EMPLOYING A SYSTEM OF OBSERVING ASSETS FOR THE EXPORTS FIELD CAMPAIGNS.WE WILL USE A THREE DIMENSIONAL SUBMESOSCALE RESOLVING PROCESS STUDY OCEAN MODEL PSOM CONFIGURED FOR 3 REGIONS WHERE OBSERVATIONAL SEAGLIDER DATASETS CAN BE MINED. THESE ARE THE 2008 NORTH ATLANTIC BLOOM EXPERIMENT NAB08 61N 26W THE OSMOSIS FIELD CAMPAIGN AT THE SITE OF THE PORCUPINE ABYSSAL PLAIN PAP 49N 16W AND OCEAN STATION PAPA OSP 50N 145W IN THE NORTH PACIFIC. DATASETS FROM EACH OF THESE REGIONS WILL BE USED TO INITIALIZE THE MODEL WITH REALISTIC VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL DENSITY GRADIENTS NUTRIENT FIELDS AND SEASONALLY APPROPRIATE WIND STRESSES HEAT FLUXES AND LIGHT. THE PRODUCTION OF POM FROM ANNPZD MODEL WILL BE USED TO SEED VIRTUAL PARTICLES WITH A SPECTRUM OF CHARACTERISTICS MASSES AND SINKING VELOCITIES TO REPRESENT THE DIVERSITY OF THE PARTICULATE POOL. WE WILL CHARACTERIZE THE DEPTH-DEPENDENT EXPORT FLUX IN DIFFERENT PARTICLE CLASSES IN RELATION TO PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND THE UPPER OCEAN DETRITAL PARTICLE PRODUCTION. WE WILL CHARACTERIZE THE SENSITIVITY OF MODEL POM EXPORT TO 1A SPECTRUM OF PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS SINKING SPEED AND MASS WITH TIME 2 THE SURFACE SUPPLY OF POM FROM PATCHY PRODUCTIVITY AND 3 VARIABLE PHYSICAL SETTINGS SEASONALLY DEPENDENT STRATIFICATION AND MIXED LAYER PROPERTIES FRONTS AND EDDIES AT EACH OF THE FIELD SITES.AN INTEGRATED SUITE OF OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS OSSES WILL ENABLE US TO TEST THE ABILITY OF A SUITE OF MIXED AUTONOMOUS ASSETS INCLUDING FLOATS GLIDERS TOWED PROFILERS AND SEDIMENT TRAPS TO ACCURATELY CHARACTERIZE EXPORT PATHWAYS AT SUBMESOSCALE RESOLUTION. OSSES WILL BE DESIGNED TO TEST ADAPTIVE SAMPLING OF FRONTAL FEATURES GUIDED BY SURFACE PROPERTIES ACCESSIBLE BY REMOTE SENSING AND TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL DEPLOYMENT OF SEDIMENT TRAPS BASED ON THE STATISTICAL FUNNEL OF PARTICLES SAMPLED BY A TRAP AT DEPTH. OUR ACTIVITIES WILL ADDRESS A NUMBER OF THE FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS OF POM EXPORT IDENTIFIED BY THE EXPORTS SCIENCE PLAN AND WILL INFORM THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EXPORTS FIELD CAMPAIGNS IN A NUMBER OF WAYS RANGING FROM A MECHANISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF PROCESSES CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPORT AND PLANNING OF OBSERVATIONAL STRATEGIES.