NSF Org:	OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Initial Amendment Date:	August 7, 2013
Latest Amendment Date:	August 7, 2013
Award Number:	1303683
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	William J. Wiseman, Jr. OPP  Office of Polar Programs (OPP) GEO  Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date:	November 1, 2013
End Date:	September 30, 2014 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$1,210,285.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$1,210,285.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2013 = $0.00
History of Investigator:	Matthew Alford (Principal Investigator) malford@ucsd.edu John Mickett (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Washington 4333 BROOKLYN AVE NE SEATTLE WA  US  98195-1016 (206)543-4043
Sponsor Congressional District:	07
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Washington 1013 NE 40th Street Seattle WA  US  98105-6698
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	HD1WMN6945W6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	ARCSS-Arctic System Science
Primary Program Source:	0100XXXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1079
Program Element Code(s):	521900
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.078

ABSTRACT

Funds are provided to obtain direct microstructure measurements to accurately constrain the turbulent heat and salt fluxes in the upper Arctic Ocean and to deploy a combination of moored and towed-body measurement devices to develop a dynamical understanding that relates those fluxes to local internal wave and mesoscale features. The proposed cruise will be bracketed at both ends by ¡­ 400 kilometer horizontal sections across the Beaufort Gyre (BG) with the towed body instrument, SWIMS. This will provide an unprecedented 0.5 km horizontal resolution snapshot of temperature, salinity, velocity, and scalar microstructure across the ice free Arctic. Time series at select locations with a tethered microstructure profiler will provide detailed and high frequency estimates of the turbulent mixing rate in relation to unfolding wave breaking events. Finally, a mooring placed in the center of the BG will provide temporal context to interpret other measurements. Analysis will focus on 1) quantifying mixing rates, 2) understanding how near-inertial internal wave propagation and breaking respond to variable forcing rates and refraction by mesoscale vorticity, and 3) evaluating several candidate dynamical relationships between the two with an eye towards parameterization.

Broader impacts of the project include support for the training of a graduate student and for an early career scientist. Furthermore, the proposed development of a public lecture through the Birch Aquarium¡¯s Perspectives on Ocean Science series, with subsequent web-based delivery of the video has the potential to reach a large lay audience.


The Arctic Ocean is logistically difficult and expensive to observe. Thus, much of our detailed understanding of the Arctic Ocean and its variability is likely to be provided by models for the foreseeable future. Our faith in the output of such models increases in proportion to our ability to include unresolved processes through parameterizations. Mixing is one of the most important of these processes. This project, if successful, will contribute to the accurate parameterization of mixing in these models, with consequent improvement of predictions of weather and climate, stratification in the ocean, the heat flux to the ocean surface, and primary production that drives the oceanic food chain.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.