Details of Award

NERC Reference : NE/G001510/1

Turbulence in Antarctic Circumpolar Current standing meanders

Principal Investigator:: Professor A Naveira Garabato, University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
Grant held at:: University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science

ENRIs:: Global Change
Science Topics:: Ocean Circulation; Ocean - Atmosphere Interact.; Climate & Climate Change

Abstract:: This proposal is to study the role of turbulent mixing in the meridional overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The project is motivated by the recent discovery of Southern Ocean regions of remarkably intense and widespread turbulence, an observation that defies current theoretical understanding of the circulation based on the assumption of little mixing in the ocean interior. The project is exciting because it will use innovative instrumentation to measure turbulent mixing in the deep Southern Ocean for the first time, to determine its causes and to assess its impact on the overturning circulation and the transport of the ACC. The focus of the project will be on observing and modelling the circulation and mixing in a standing meander of the ACC north of the Kerguelen Plateau, a dynamically important region of the current system. This novel way of looking at the ACC will provide important new insight into how the the current interacts with bottom topography (a crucial issue for understanding what sets the ACC transport), the dynamical nature of the overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and how this should be represented in ocean circulation and climate models.

Authorised funds only

This grant award has a total value of £255,757

DI - Other Costs	Indirect - Indirect Costs	DA - Investigators	Exception - Staff	DI - Staff	DA - Estate Costs	DI - T&S
£30,489	£86,473	£12,968	£8,102	£58,838	£37,336	£21,549

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