Funding for the university of delaware (UD) will support the PI, DR. Xinfeng liang, in the transferred project entitled using satellite and deep ocean measurements to investigate the influence of…

This federal contract is a grant award to the University of Delaware (UD) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the New (Early Career) Investigator Program in Earth Science. The award, valued at $185,678.06, funds a project led by Dr. Xinfeng Liang to investigate the influence of mesoscale eddies on deep ocean internal waves using satellite and deep ocean measurements. The work will be carried out by Dr. Liang and a postdoctoral associate, Dr. Yingli Zhu, at UD. The project aims to better understand the connection between surface-observed mesoscale eddies and deep ocean dynamical processes, including subinertial flows and internal waves. This research could provide insights into how climate change and variability impact physical and biogeochemical dynamics in the deep ocean. The grant does not have a set-aside designation and is set to be completed by September 28, 2022.

Funding for the university of delaware (UD) will support the PI, DR. Xinfeng liang, in the transferred project entitled using satellite and deep ocean measurements to investigate the influence of mesoscale eddies on deep ocean internal waves, which was awarded by the national aeronautics and space administration through the new (early career) investigator program (NIP) in earth science program. The award number is 80NSSC18K0831. Work at UD will be carried out by liang and a postdoc associate, DR. Yingli ZHU. Focus will be tasks related to the investigation of the influence of mesoscale eddies on the deep ocean internal waves around the global ocean. To achieve this goal, the team proposes to combine altimeter data and an archive of deep.ocean measurements to investigate the connections between surface.observed mesoscale eddies and deep.ocean dynamical processes, in particular, subinertial flows and internal waves, over the global ocean. The team will first obtain subinertial currents in the less.studied deep ocean (below 2000 m) and examine under what circumstances these currents are associated with mesoscale eddies revealed in the altimeter data. Then the team will investigate the relationships between subinertial currents and nearinertial/ tidal currents in the deep ocean, in relationships also to other factors (e.g., topography, latitude, and regional circulation). The first stage of the project, in which the team investigated the impacts of mesoscale eddies on the deep ocean circulation and near.inertial oscillation in the gulf of mexico, is almost finished. We will extend the regional test study to the global ocean at UD. The proposed study will extend the use of satellite measurements to better studying the deep ocean, which is poorly understood but generally believed playing an essential role in the response of the ocean to the changing climate. Also, the potential influence of mesoscale eddies on deep ocean processes is important in a variety of contexts, including the dispersal of larv and geochemical tracers and sediment transport, etc. Also, since frequency and intensity of mesoscale eddies depend on the state of the climate, the eddy modulation of deep.ocean currents, internal waves, and mixing, connects climate change and climate variability to physical and biogeochemical dynamics in the deep ocean, allowing for unexplored climate feedback mechanisms. As PI, liang will be responsible for overlooking the project and working with postdoc ZHU to conduct some of the proposed analyses. Postdoc ZHU will be mostly responsible for the data analyses. Both liang and ZHU will be involved in the preparation of research results for dissemination in conferences and the refereed literature.