Description
- Abstract:
- The Southern Ocean plays a major role in global ocean dynamics, including the regulation of heat and salt in the climate system that supports life on Earth. The Southern Ocean’s dominant current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is the strongest and most interconnected ocean current in the global ocean system, thus is central to these dynamics. One particular region of importance is where the ACC interacts with the Southeast Indian Ridge; high localized exchange and increased diffusivity as a result of the seafloor bathymetry impact turbulent flows and their properties, including mesoscale eddies — circular flows that are typically on the order of hundreds of kilometers in width and last several weeks. In this research, we examine the heat and salt fluxes caused by these mesoscale eddies in the ACC around the SEIR over the last decade. We use satellite data to study surface-visible properties of tens of thousands of eddies, and Argo float and autonomous glider data to study subsurface properties of hundreds of eddies. The former allows us to study how these eddies are moving; while the latter helps us understand what biogeochemical properties they are transporting. In combining these two views, we are able to estimate bounds on the aggregate amounts of these properties being moved by the eddy field, which serve to develop a better understanding of the impacts of eddies on fluxes in this region, as well as across the ACC.
- Notes:
- Senior thesis (ScB)--Brown University, 2025
- Concentration: Applied Mathematics
Access Conditions
- Use and Reproduction
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- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
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Citation
Choudhury, Ayushman,
"Mesoscale Eddies as a Mechanism for Fluxes in the Southern Ocean"
(2025).
Applied Mathematics Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/qgv9-vz76
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Applied Mathematics Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Applied Mathematics department....