This three-year, $473,907 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences will support research into quantifying the exchange processes between the ocean surface boundary layer and interior at submesoscales. Submesoscale interactions between currents, waves, and turbulence can significantly impact biogeochemistry and climate through entrainment and subduction of tracers between layers. The awardee, Brown University, will conduct numerical simulations and develop new...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) Project Grant award in the amount of $353,715 will fund a collaborative research project to study the turbulence in the stratified layer at the air-water interface, as driven by waves and wind. The project will utilize a combination of controlled laboratory experiments and advanced numerical simulations (large-eddy simulations) to test the hypothesis that coupling between waves and wind-driven currents is necessary to...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) will fund research to investigate the interactions between internal waves and submesoscale currents in the ocean's bottom boundary layer. The total award is $418,382 over a period of 3 years, from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2027. The research will combine theoretical concepts, analyses of existing measurements, and computer modeling to assess how these wave-current interactions affect mixing and...
This $313,825 two-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) supports research into submesoscale instabilities and energy cascades in seamount wakes. The University of Maryland, College Park will use large eddy simulations and Reynolds-averaged modeling to investigate how submesoscale processes impact dissipation, mixing, and the representation of seamount energetics in climate models. Specifically, the awardee will examine the forward energy...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Geosciences program Project Grant award, with a total funding of $438,734, supports a collaborative research effort to study the turbulence in the stratified layer at the air-water interface caused by waves and wind. The research will be conducted through a combination of controlled laboratory experiments and state-of-the-art numerical simulations, with the goal of improving the representation of the ocean surface boundary layer in Earth-system models....
The National Science Foundation awarded a $229,234 project grant to Texas A&M University under the Geosciences (47.050) federal grant program. The three-year award beginning June 1, 2023 will support research to conduct a global census of submesoscale ocean energetics using in-situ drifter observations and high-resolution ocean modeling. Key products include quantifying global submesoscale kinetic energy content and transfers across spatial scales to provide the first observational...
This National Science Foundation project grant of $399,900 will fund research at the University of Delaware from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2025. The research aims to advance understanding of the ocean surface boundary layer dynamics under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050). Specifically, the award will support collaborative research to explore the effects of surface waves on the stratified ocean surface boundary layer during conditions of surface heating. Through analyses of existing...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) will provide $218,487 to the University of South Florida from December 1, 2024 through November 30, 2027 to conduct collaborative research on the structure and intensity of Langmuir turbulence and its impact on cross-shore scalar transport in idealized shallow coastal shelf environments. The research aims to uncover interactions between Langmuir turbulence and nearshore processes such as...
This three-year, $406,381 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences, under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), will fund research examining submesoscale frontal dynamics and exchange processes in San Luis Obispo Bay, California. A team of four researchers from different institutions will conduct high-resolution measurements of turbulent mixing using ship surveys and moorings to collect hydrographic, velocity, and microstructure profile data. They will...
The National Science Foundation's Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) awarded a $663,712 Project Grant to the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This grant will fund a 3-year collaborative research project to study the role of wind and waves in mixing the upper ocean. The project will conduct controlled laboratory experiments and state-of-the-art numerical simulations to test the hypothesis that coupling between waves and wind-driven currents is necessary...
This National Science Foundation project grant of $568,415 supports research into submesoscale ocean processes through May 2025. Funded under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), the award will advance understanding of exchange between the well-mixed surface layer and stratified interior of the ocean at horizontal length scales of hundreds to thousands of meters.
Major activities include Reynolds-averaged numerical simulations to quantify the impact of incorporating entrainment fluxes into a widely used parameterization of submesoscale mixed-layer instability. Large-eddy simulations will determine how submesoscale instabilities, surface gravity waves, and small-scale three-dimensional turbulence interact to modify tracer entrainment and subduction. Insights will be applied to state-of-the-art large-domain les resolving scales of 1-10km. The majority of funds support early career scientists, including a graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, and early career faculty and research scientists. Model improvements and new benchmarks in exascale ocean modeling are expected to advance community ocean and climate models.