Can underwater gliders quantify horizontal ocean mixing in the West Antarctic?
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
Abstract
Quantifying and understanding the processes driving ocean mixing is key to closing the ocean's overturning circulation and improving future climate projections. Historically, mixing measurements in the ocean have been taken using free-falling profilers; however in the last five years new techniques have been developed to allow turbulence to be measured using underwater gliders (Fer et al., 2014). These platforms increase by an order of magnitude the number of measurements both of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy, and the dissipation of temperature variance within the ocean. Whilst this in itself provides very significant improvements in resolving the patchiness of vertical mixing, we wish to understand whether these measurements can, with careful processing, be used to calculate horizontal ocean mixing. This is an important quantity to estimate in the West Antarctic, as horizontal mixing and stirring of the ocean by eddies are important processes for delivering ocean heat to the glaciers and ice shelves in this region (Martinson et al., 2008; Pritchard et al., 2012). The West Antarctic is known to be one of the fastest warming environments on the planet, with significant loss of both land- and sea-ice in the last 30 years. The work will be strongly integrated with existing expertise at BAS and the University of Southampton in Southern Ocean mixing processes, ultimately providing NEXUSS CDT improved estimates of horizontal heat fluxes in this rapidly changing region.
People |
ORCID iD |
Alberto Naveira Garabato (Primary Supervisor) | |
Ryan Scott (Student) |
Publications
Scott R
(2019)
Three-Dimensional Structure of a Cold-Core Arctic Eddy Interacting with the Chukchi Slope Current
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NE/N012070/1 | 30/09/2016 | 30/03/2025 | |||
1791103 | Studentship | NE/N012070/1 | 30/09/2016 | 31/12/2020 | Ryan Scott |
Description | Challenger Society for Marine Science Student Travel Award |
Amount | £500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Challenger Society for Marine Science |
Sector | Learned Society |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2018 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | Ecole polytechnique Summer School Travel Bursary |
Amount | € 500 (EUR) |
Organisation | Ecole Polytechnique |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | France |
Start | 06/2017 |
End | 07/2017 |
Description | RAS Travel Grant |
Amount | £800 (GBP) |
Organisation | Royal Astronomical Society |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2016 |
End | 12/2016 |
Title | Automated Glider Microstructure Processing |
Description | The scripts I've developed automatically process microstructure data that were collected using a Slocum Glider |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | I have used it to process the glider data in my PhD |
Description | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Visiting Student |
Organisation | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | I worked on a project that we created based on observations in the Arctic. We wrote a paper out of the work that I completed at WHOI. |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborator supervised the work I was doing and contributed to the writing in our paper |
Impact | We wrote the paper in the URL above. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | BlueDot Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I helped man the BAS stand at BlueDot Festival, with the aim of getting the general public interested in polar science. I talked about my work with gliders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | British Antarctic Survey Open Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I talked about gliders at the British Antarctic Survey open day |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Norwich Science Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I manned the BAS stand at the Norwich Science Festival, talking about gliders |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |