Objectives
The goal of this project is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the remote and local factors that control the meso- and submesoscale features in and around the Philippine Strait region. To accomplish the goal, we will perform series of experiments using a nested grid implementation of ROMS, in conjunction with advanced data assimilation techniques and adjoint-based methods of sensitivity analysis. The long-term goal of the project is to improve our capability to predict the inherent spatial and temporal variability near the Straits, and thus contribute to the development of reliable prediction systems.
The objectives to accomplish the goal are:
- to explore the effects of remote forcing from the equatorial waveguides of the Pacific Ocean, which have large amplitude variations on intraseasonal, seasonal, and interannual timescales (ENSO);
- to estimate the effects of local winds in the Philippine Sea region in generating meso- and submesoscale variability in and around the Straits;
- to quantify the role of barotropic tidal forcing in promoting side wall eddies and internal tides;
- to examine the role of abrupt changes in bathymetry in generating submesoscale variability; and
- to investigate the impact of data assimilation on the simulation and predictability of the meso- and submesoscale circulation features.
The proposed project is important both scientifically and operationally, because the idea of large-scale control of the meso- and submesoscale features in the Philippine Strait region by the equatorial waveguide is new; via interaction of the circulation with abruptly changing bottom topography and tidal forcing, the waveguides may exert a significant influence on the predictability of the variability. Accomplishment of the proposed goals will not only advance our scientific understanding of the generation dynamics and predictability of meso- and submesoscale eddies near Straits, but also directly contribute to the Navy's operational requirements.