News from Climate Dynamics
Studies of Equatorial Pacific Upwelling and Mixing Physics
Professor Paul Schopf of the Climate Dynamics Department is studying the dynamics of the tropical Pcific Ocean. This region is the center of the El Nino climate fluctuation, and scientists are trying to work out exactly how the temperature balance is maintained. Computer models of the climate have long had trouble simulating this region properly, and the US program in Climate Variabilty and Change (US CLIVAR) is planning on mounting a major field campaign to study the dynamics of upwelling and mixing (PUMP). As part of the preparation for this program, Professor Schopf is collaborating with scientists from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory on computer simulations that are designed to test the design of the field project as well as to shed insight on the sensitivity of ocean to the nature of turbulent mixing.
The SGI Altix supercomputer is being used to simulate the Pacific at fairly high resolution, so that the role of Tropical Instability Waves (TIWs)and other fine-scale variability can be understood. The TIWs are strong just north of the equator near 140°W, and appear a a series of vorticies that propagate westward. The model used is the GMU Poseidon ocean circulation model, developed by Professor Schopf.