Quantification of Antaric Bottom Water formation processes based on high-resoolution modeling and direct mooring observations

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25870021
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Meteorology/Physical oceanography/Hydrology; High performance computing
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Matsumura Yoshimasa 北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 助教 (70631399)
• Research Collaborator: YAMAGISHI Takateru (財)高度情報科学技術研究機構
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: フラジルアイス / 非静力学モデル / 海洋海氷結合モデル / 粒子追跡法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Although Antarctic Bottom Water formation plays very important roles in the Earth's climate, it has not yet been realistically reproduced by numerical simulations. The present study focuses on the improvement of numerical model code by implementing a Lagrangian particle tracking system built-into a non-hydrostatic ocean model. Using this Eulerian-Lagrangian hybrid approach, we develop a new coupled sea ice-ocean model that explicitly deals with frazil ice as Lagrangian particles. It successfully simulated small scale sea ice formation processes in a coastal polynya. We also develop a model that explicitly simulates suspended sediments and their effects on the apparent density of seawater. The newly developed non-hydrostatic ocean model with a built-in Lagrangian particle tracking system has many potential applications.

Free Research Field

海洋物理学