Coherent pathways for vertical transport from the Surface Ocean to Interior

Abstract

A long-standing challenge in oceanography is the observing, modeling, and prediction of vertical transport, which links the sunlit and atmospherically mediated surface boundary layer with the deeper ocean. Vertical motions play a critical role in the exchange of heat, freshwater, and biogeochemical tracers between the surface and the ocean interior. The most intense vertical velocities occur at horizontal scales less than 10 km, making them difficult to observe in the ocean and to resolve in models. Understanding how finescale turbulent motions and 0.1–10 km submesoscale processes contribute to the large-scale budgets of nutrients, oxygen, carbon, and heat and affect sea surface temperature, the air–sea exchange of gases, and the carbon cycle is one of the key challenges in oceanography.