Climate Change: Ocean Mixing May Reveal More Answers

Understanding ocean mixing a bit better may help scientists better understand climate. Researchers have created a computer model that clarifies the complex processes driving ocean mixing in the vast eddies that swirl across the open ocean.

"The model enables us to study the important processes of ocean storms, which move heat and carbon from the atmosphere into the deep ocean," said Todd Ringler, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This happens very slowly, but over the next 1,000 years, much of the fossil fuel carbon emissions will end up in the deep ocean: ocean eddies make that happen."

Global climate simulations are only just beginning to be able to resolve the largest ocean eddies, called mesoscale eddies, which are considered the "weather" of the ocean. The model that the laboratory researchers developed for ocean mixing leads to an improved understanding of these mesoscale eddies and how they mix the ocean waters. This information, in turn, increases global climate simulation accuracy through a better representation of heat fluxes and carbon into the deep ocean.

This latest study, though, may help researchers track the flow of heat and carbon in the ocean.

"Not only does each particle tell us about the ocean currents, but groups of particles tell us how turbulence in the ocean mixes temperature and carbon dioxide throughout the ocean," said Phillip Wolfram, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This project quantifies the key fundamental processes of the ocean and points the way to improved techniques to better simulate climate change over a range of spatial and temporal scales."

The findings are published in the Journal of Physical Oceanography.

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