CIOP · Centrifugal Instability in the Orkney Passage
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-12-03 → 2020-12-02
- EU contribution
- €173,076
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Centrifugal Instability in the Orkney Passage
Centrifugal Instability in the Orkney Passage (CIOP) is a collaborative effort to better understand turbulent processes within a deep-sea canyon near Antarctica. The main problem addressed is whether one of these turbulent processes--centrifugal instability by flow past topography—has an impact on turbulence and mixing in a deep-sea. The reason this is climatically important is that dense waters that are formed in the Weddell Sea (referred to as Weddell Sea Deep Water, WSDW) make their way through this canyon prior to joining the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Since AABW helps drive the global overturning circulation, understanding turbulent processes in this Passage are critical for climate prediction in future years. The main objective of the project is an improved understanding of physics associated with centrifugal instability in the Orkney Passage. However, a secondary objective of CIOP is the development of the Fellow's modelling skills. A significant component of the Marie-Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowship (IF) is synergy between the applicant and the host institution. CIOP achieves this objective through close synergy between observational and modelling expertise, using a branch of the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) as our tool. The third and final objective of CIOP is increased international collaborations across multiple institutions. These include French, UK, and US institutions. The result of these objectives is a suite of realistic, high-resolution numerical simulations that can be used for future analysis, development, and evaluation of parameterizations for coarser-resolution models.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Climate change by the early-to-mid century will attract great social, economic, political and scientific attention. Countries will be faced with elevated sea levels, changes in drought and precipitation, alterations to marine ecosystems, and economic insecurity as a result of Earth’s changing climate. In order to make practical and prudent decisions about economic aid to developing and developed countries alike, the European Union (EU) must predict global change with increased accuracy. While climate models are consistently improving in predictive skill, their computational demands necessitate parameterization of sub-grid-scale processes. In oceans, one such process is centrifugal instability (CI) occurring near topographic boundaries in the abyssal oceans. The research proposed here, “Centrifugal Instability in the Orkney Passage (CIOP)”, aims to improve our predictive capability of climate by representing a small-scale turbulent mixing process occurring in and around steep topography, and that is believed to impact global ocean circulation through modification of dense water properties. This study will focus on the analysis and interpretation of moored observations and model simulations of Orkney Passage (OP). As the OP is a region where dense water that is formed within the Weddell Sea is modified prior to joining the deep ocean circulation, it is a prime candidate for such study. As part of CIOP, the applicant will (1) enhance understanding of energy and buoyancy fluxes by closely examining mooring and high-resolution model data, (2) identify a relationship between volume transport and fluxes within OP and (3) identify regions conducive to CI. Three outcomes of CIOP will be (i) work toward representing such fluxes in coarse-resolution models and communicated through open-access publications, conferences and meetings, (ii) development of the applicant’s modelling skills and (iii) strategic collaborations between French, British, and American institutions.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITE DE BREST · BRESTCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union