The coastal climate of California is profoundly affected by the ocean, which moderates its hot summers and provides moisture for much-needed winter rains. While the importance and impact of the mean state of the ocean are well appreciated, the impact of the anomalous state of the ocean on coastal climate is far less well understood.
The primary goal of the ATOMIC experiment is to improve understanding of ocean-atmosphere interaction in the presence of energetic ocean mesoscale variability in the northwest tropical Atlantic. A particular focus is on documenting the role of ocean mesoscale eddies and fronts in the surface fluxes of momentum, heat, and freshwater, and examining how the eddy-mediated air-sea fluxes relate to ocean boundary layer mixing, low-level clouds, and regional climate.
The goal of the project is to examine the impacts of oceanic fronts, mesoscale eddies, and sea ice distribution on simulation and prediction of the extratropical storm track in the Southern Ocean. Particularly pronounced in the Southern Ocean and bearing relatively long persistence time- scales of weeks to months, the ocean mesoscale variability and the coupled processes arising at the air-ice-ocean interface can influence the intensity and position of the storm tracks and hence the predictive skill. However, the detailed understanding of the physics of coupling and impacts on predictability is lacking.
Understanding the role of the ocean and coupled physics for the simulation and forecast models is the primary goal of the MISO-BOB DRI. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role that the Bay of Bengal (BOB) plays in the dynamics, sensitivity, and predictability of the MISO. The project will use a regional coupled model (coupling WRF and ROMS) that is optimally configured for the MISO-BOB study with 1) an explicit deep convection for better representation of the MISO convective processes, 2) realistic prescription of the river discharge forcing, 3) highly resolved (both horizontal and vertical) mixed layer process, 4) multi-scale modeling framework for local and remote controls of the MISO, and 5) on/off control of ocean data assimilation procedures.
“Years of Maritime Continent (YMC)” is an international campaign which contains five scientific themes. The project we propose will focus primarily on upper ocean processes and their impacts on air-sea interaction, and thus will directly contribute to one of the themes “Ocean and Air-Sea Interaction”. The primary goal of the proposed study is to understand the role of upper ocean processes over the MC in diurnal to intraseasonal atmosphere-ocean-land interaction and the simulation and prediction of the tropical intra-seasonal variability including the MJO. Specific objectives are to: Read More →
WHOI is the world's leading non-profit oceanographic
research organization. Our mission is to explore and understand the ocean and to
educate scientists, students, decision-makers, and the public.