IT IS WIDELY RECOGNIZED THAT FLOW AT THE MESOSCALES WHICH CONSTITUTE A PEAK IN THE KINETIC ENERGY SPECTRUM IS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION AND ITS RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN CLIMATE. THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO STUDY FOUR DISTINCT PATHWAYS THAT COUPLE THE MESOSCALES TO THE LARGER-SCALE GENERAL CIRCULATION. SUCH COUPLING IS GENERALLY RECOGNIZED TO PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN DETERMINING LARGE-SCALE CIRCULATION IN TRANSPORTING HEAT AND ALSO IN LIMITING OUR PREDICTIVE ABILITY TO FORECAST CLIMATE. TO THIS END WE WILL PURSUE AN INTEGRATED ANALYSIS OF SATELLITE AND MODEL DATA WITHIN A NOVEL MULTI-SCALE DIAGNOSTIC FRAMEWORK. THE COARSE-GRAINING FRAMEWORK HAS A RIGOROUS MATHEMATICAL FOUNDATION AND IS MORE VERSATILE THAN THE CLASSICAL `MEAN-EDDY' DECOMPOSITION. IT ALLOWS FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE COUPLING PHYSICS AT VARIOUS PRE-DETERMINED LENGTH-SCALES WHICH CAN BE CHOSEN TO MATCH THE GRID RESOLUTION IN A MODEL. THEREFORE THE PROPOSED PROJECT MAY PROVE TO BE CRITICAL IN ADVANCING A NEW SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO DEVISING SCALE-AWARE AND LOCATION-AWARE PARAMETERIZATIONS THAT REFLECT THE LATENT SUBGRID PHYSICS ALONG WITH A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE AMPLITUDE AND FREQUENCY RESPONSES OF THE MESOSCALES TO LARGE-SCALE PROCESSES. OUR COARSE-GRAINING APPROACH UNDERTAKEN HERE IS PARTICULARLY USEFUL FOR THE UPCOMING SWOT MISSION WITH THE PROMISE OF UNRAVELING COMPLEX MULTI-SCALE PHYSICS WITHIN THE VAST DYNAMICAL RANGE SWOT WILL RESOLVE. IN THESE RESPECTS OUR PROPOSED WORK HAS THE POTENTIAL TO OPEN THE GATEWAY TO ANALYZING REMOTELY SENSED DATA IN A COMPLETELY NEW WAY THAT CAN NATURALLY GUIDE MODELING EFFORTS IN A CONSISTENT MANNER. THE PROPOSED WORK ADDRESSES TWO OF THE THREE THEMES IDENTIFIED IN THE SOLICITATION (I)"ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE OCEAN CIRCULATION USING SATELLITE AND IN SITU DATA." AND (III)"THE INTENSITY AND LOCATION OF MIXING IN THE OCEAN." MOREOVER IT IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE US CLIVAR PROGRAM SINCE IT ADDRESSES TEMPORAL VARIABILITY AND IMPROVING OUR PREDICTIVE CAPABILITY.