Mixing it up in the Southern Ocean

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Mixing it up in the Southern Ocean

alt text goes hereThis month we spotlight work by Ryan Abernathey who has been using MITgcm to map surface mixing rates globally.


Sea – Ice Interplay

In a novel approach, MITgcmers Ian Fenty and Patrick Heimbach use optimal state and parameter estimation to improve the sea-ice simulations.


Overflowing with Movies

Nuno Serra from the University of Hamburg has used MITgcm in many ocean modeling projects, both from a process-modelling perspective and “realistically”, incorporating forcing from NCEP and ECMWF. He is especially interested in the processes regulating North Atlantic and North Pacific inter-annual to inter-decadal variability. A particular passion is overflows.


MITgcm on Ice

In a recent paper in the Journal of Physical Oceanography, An Nguyen (MIT) and co-authors Ronald Kwok (JPL) and Dimitris Menemenlis (JPL) report on work using MITgcm to better understand the origin and character of  the western arctic, upper halocline.


MITgcm on the Beach

At this time of the year newspapers and magazines abound with suggestions for things to read on vacation. MITgcm recommends popping copies of the following recent papers in your beach bag, after all, there’s more than one way to study the ocean!



Modeling the Gulf of Aqaba (Gulf of Eilat)

Long-time MITgcm-ers Eli Biton and Hezi Gildor have been using the model to explore the circulation in the Gulf of Aqaba (Gulf of Eilat), a terminal elongated basin that exchanges water with the northern Red Sea


Wind Stress and Southern Ocean Meridional Overturning

ACC channel model - Image: R. AbernatheyRyan Abernathey and co-workers have been using idealised MITgcm simulations to explore the dependence of Southern Ocean meridional overturning on wind stress.


A Slippery Problem

Wall-vortex interactions - Image: Deremble et al. (2011)Deremble and co-authors have been using MITgcm to revisit the problem of no-slip boundary conditions in ocean models.


Modeling Nordic Seas II

Mean sea surface temperature and bottom topography - source: Vaage et al. (2011)Mike Spall, a Senior Scientist in the Physical Oceanography Group at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has been using MITgcm to understand newly observed characteristics of the Denmark Strait Overflow.