Earth Simulator Center

ESC seminar No. 46

Impacts of submesoscale structures on physical-biological interactions

Date

November 27 (Thu.), 2008, 14:00-15:00

Place

Meeting room 1 & 2, 2F Conference building, YES

Speaker

Dr. Patrice Klein (IFREMER/Centre de Brest)

Language

English

Abstract

Because mesoscale (100km in the horizontal) processes may transport tracers (such as nutrients) vertically, biogeochemists hypothesized that these vertical exchanges may strongly affect global tracer budgets. This has motivated a large number of biogeochemical studies that we review by focusing on the important breakthroughs achieved and on what uncertainties and questions still remain. One of the main questions concerns the importance of the submesoscales (10 km in the horizontal) in these vertical exchanges.

Independently, in the past decade, fluid dynamicists have examined the three-dimensional properties of the submesoscales generated by a mesoscale turbulent eddy field.

We review their results and discuss how the vertical exchanges associated with these submesoscales may answer the issues raised by biogeochemical studies and inspire future directions.

Contact

Hideharu Sasaki
Earth Simulator Center
TEL: 045-778-5843
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