NSF Award
9315019
9315019 Muench The proposed work is part of an integrated research program ("Anzflux") into the oceanographic structure of upper mixed layer of the eastern Weddell Sea. It is to be carried out from the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer in the austral winter of 1994. The work proposed here concerns how regional-scale circulation features affect the smaller-scale turbulence features. This project consists of two spatially nested experiments. A small scale experiment will use the ship's Acoustic Doppler Current profiler (ADCP) to measure the fluctuating current structure at one meter depth intervals in the upper layers of the ocean. A mesoscale experiment will make use of current, temperature, and salinity observations to define regional-scale features and to observe their feedback effects. These measurements, in conjunction with other concurrent experiments to quantify the energy brought to the underside of the ice, will form the basis of a regional study of the processes responsible for the relatively thick upper mixed layer and thin ice cover. It is believed that these conditions are only marginally stable, and are maintained by a relatively high upward heat flux, which, if interrupted, could lead to deep vertical convection, and a significant change in the oceanic climate. ***
