Eddy Resolving GCM
Study.
Description of PhD project
WP1 (NP)
The motivation for this work is that the main currents in the Greenland Sea seems to follow bathymetric contours. Since the contours are closed and encircle the basin, the main currents will not contribute to the exchange of water masses, heat, salt and momentum between the Greenland Sea and the neighbouring ocean regions. However, exchange is needed for deep water formed in the Greenland Sea to influence other ocean regions, and to balance the surface heat fluxes within the gyre. This PhD work will therefore focus on understanding the processes controlling the exchange with the Greenland Sea and the surroundings. Since the main geostrophic currents are thought not to contribute to this exchange we will assume from the beginning that small scale processes like eddies and Ekman layers are important. A primitive equation model (which model will be chosen later in cooperation with NERSC) will be set up for idealized domains with topography of different complexities. From these model results we will get an idea on the roles of the different small scale processes. Especially eddies are believed to play an important role in the exchange of heat, salt and momentum, and the dynamics of the eddies will be examined in detail to increase the understanding of how they interact with the sloping topography. In addition to the high resolution model runs the PhD candidate will develop simplified process models in order to analyze the dynamics of the small scale processes responsible for the exchange of heat, salt and momentum.
