| NSF Org: |
OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | November 17, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | November 17, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1800017 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Baris Uz
bmuz@nsf.gov (703)292-4557 OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | March 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $30,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $30,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
5586 POST RD UNIT 2 EAST GREENWICH RI US 02818-3454 (401)783-4011 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
512 Liberty Lane West Kingston RI US 02892-1502 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
This award will help initiate a new Gordon Research conference on Ocean Mixing. Turbulent mixing results from complex and chaotic motions that span a large range of spatial and temporal scales. As such, it is particularly challenging to measure and model, with vast and important consequences. In the ocean, turbulent mixing controls transport of heat, freshwater, dissolved gasses, and pollutants. It is crucial for ocean biology because it both determines the flow field for the smallest plankton, and it sets large-scale gradients of nutrient availability. It is also central to understanding the energetics of the ocean and reducing the uncertainties in global circulation and climate models: recent work has shown that the spatial and temporal non-homogeneity in deep-ocean mixing may play a critical role in climate. This biennial Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Ocean Mixing will provide a unique setting to discuss and improve our current understanding of turbulent mixing in the ocean, and with it a variety of implications for everything from climate change to global nutrient patterns that underlie our fisheries. The GRC format encourages the sort of interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration that is so vital to addressing these societal issues and will help our scientific community be the most vibrant & inclusive it can be. The ocean mixing community has historically suffered from poor diversity, which, while improved in recent years, still needs an influx of new people, a broadening of ties amongst domestic and international collaborators, and increased interdisciplinary interactions. The support from the National Science Foundation will explicitly be used to expand the demographic, professional and geographic diversity of participants by supporting attendance of underrepresented and under-resourced groups who stand to benefit from the intellectual environment and networking opportunities of the GRC format.
The purpose and scope of this Gordon Research Conference is to provide an open forum for discussion of the rapidly evolving field of ocean mixing. Emphasis is threefold: observations of mixing in the world, new insights into dynamics that control mixing rates, and impacts of mixing on regional and global circulation and budgets. The latter two include development of parameterizations to turn dynamical insights into useful things to include in regional models and global numerical climate models. Understanding the physics that drives the distribution of deep-ocean mixing intensity is critical. Yet even after a half a century of efforts to understand its global distribution, observations are still sparse; a variety of direct and indirect methods are still needed to characterize the dynamical processes that lead to turbulence, and inferences of mixing from larger scale budgets. As such, the physics of ocean mixing is actively studied using a variety of observational techniques (direct measure of velocity and temperature fluctuations at the smallest scales, inferences from large-scale turbulent overturns, observations of net mixing by purposeful dye release) numerical and theoretical approaches, as well as laboratory experiments. Finally, the consequences of mixing for larger scale climate models (which do not directly resolve mixing) are addressed by turning dynamical insights of the previously mentioned work into practical parameterizations. As a concrete example, using different mixing schemes in numerical climate models changes predicted tropical ocean temperatures by more than a degree and predicted sea level rise by more than 30 cm. Mixing is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty plaguing today's models with impact of great societal relevance.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Turbulent mixing in the ocean controls transport of heat, freshwater, dissolved gasses, and pollutants. Turbulent mixing is also of crucial importance for ocean biology, from determining the flow field for the smallest plankton to setting large-scale gradients of nutrient availability. Recent work suggests considerable spatial and temporal non-homogeneity in deep-ocean mixing; an improved understanding of the distribution of deep-ocean mixing intensity and the physics that drives that distribution is central to understanding the energetics of the ocean and reducing the uncertainties in global circulation and climate models. Observations of turbulent mixing in the ocean include direct measurements of velocity and temperature fluctuations at the small scales (mm to cm) of turbulent overturns, observations of net mixing by purposeful dye release, focused studies of the dynamical processes that lead to turbulence, and inferences of mixing from larger scale budgets. The physics of ocean mixing is also actively studied using a variety of numerical and theoretical approaches, as well as laboratory experiments. Finally, the consequences of mixing for larger scale climate models are addressed by turning dynamical insights of the previously mentioned work into practical parameterizations.
The purpose and scope of the Gordon Research Conference was to provide a forum for discussion of the rapidly evolving field of ocean mixing. Emphasis is threefold: observations of mixing in the world, new insights into dynamics that control mixing rates, and impacts of mixing on regional and global circulation and budgets. The latter two include development of parameterizations to turn dynamical insights into useful things to include in regional models and global numerical climate models.
The Gordon Research Conference was held at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire from June 3-8, 2018 and attended by 163 participants from academia, government and industry from the US and around the world.
Last Modified: 06/19/2019
Modified by: Jonathan D Nash
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