Mixing rates, mechanisms and impacts in the Arctic Ocean
Image: M. Chanona
The Arctic Ocean is a rapidly changing environment that is tightly linked to changes in the Earth’s climate. Historically the Arctic Ocean interior has been quiet, and the heat contained in sub-surface waters has been sequestered from contact with the surface by strong stratification and weak mixing rates. However, as more ice melts, we expect the ocean to become increasing turbulent. Accompanying enhanced mixing rates are expected to result in important changes in Arctic Ocean stratification, dense water formation rates, and the properties of the waters exported from the Arctic to the global overturning circulation. Further, there is the potential to mix deep heat upwards, warming surface waters, accelerating the rate of ice melt, and increasing turbulent energies further.
A primary focus of our group is to better understand turbulent mixing rates and mechanisms in the Arctic Ocean in the past, present and future. To do this, we are collecting glider-based measurements of turbulence, mapping the space and time variability of internal wave field energy levels from historical and contemporary observations, and exploring sensitivities to mixing rates and patterns in realistic models of circulation in the region. In all these approaches, we aim not only to quantify turbulent mixing rates and their space-time variability, but also the physical mechanisms that underpin them. In this way, we can better understand the feedbacks associated with current and future changes in the Arctic Ocean system.
A primary focus of our group is to better understand turbulent mixing rates and mechanisms in the Arctic Ocean in the past, present and future. To do this, we are collecting glider-based measurements of turbulence, mapping the space and time variability of internal wave field energy levels from historical and contemporary observations, and exploring sensitivities to mixing rates and patterns in realistic models of circulation in the region. In all these approaches, we aim not only to quantify turbulent mixing rates and their space-time variability, but also the physical mechanisms that underpin them. In this way, we can better understand the feedbacks associated with current and future changes in the Arctic Ocean system.
Select Papers & Presentations:
- A poster by undergraduate student Benjamin O'Connor about how imposing an observation-informed map of background mixing impacts the modelled Arctic Ocean state presented at the 28th IUGG General Assembly in Berlin Germany in July 2023.
- An invited talk by PI Stephanie Waterman about Arctic Ocean mixing space-time geography presented at the EGU General Assembly 2023 in Vienna Austria in April 2023.
- A paper by postdoc Hayley Dosser and Ph.D. student Melanie Chanona about changes in internal wave-driven mixing across the Arctic Ocean published in the Geophyscal Research Letters in 2021.
- A paper by Ph.D. student Benjamin Scheifele about measuring turbulence in the strongly-stratified, low-energy Arctic environment published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans in 2018.
- A non-specialist presentation about using an ocean robot to map Arctic Ocean mixing rates presented at the Commonwealth Science Conference in Singapore in October 2017.
In the News:
- An article about our group’s work on mixing rates, mechanisms and impacts in the Arctic Ocean published in the SCOR Canadian Ocean Science Newsletter in 2016.