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SUMMARY:Dense water cascading off the continental shelf - overview and rec
 ent modelling results - Fred Wobus (Plymouth University)
DTSTART:20110810T120000Z
DTEND:20110810T130000Z
UID:TALK32239@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Povl Abrahamsen
DESCRIPTION:Flows of dense water down the continental slope – cascades 
 – are initiated in Arctic shelf regions by surface cooling or sea ice fo
 rmation. In the Arctic Ocean there is growing understanding of the influen
 ce of cascading on the formation and maintenance of the halocline and on t
 he global overturning circulation. The process is also believed to be infl
 uential in the off-shelf transport of carbon and other suspended or dissol
 ved matter. Cascades thus present a potentially important link between she
 lf waters and the deep ocean\, but their role in the Arctic Ocean remains 
 largely unquantified.\n\nShelf-ocean exchange is inhibited by a combinatio
 n of steep slopes and geostrophy\, so there is considerable interest in pr
 ocesses that break the geostrophic constraint to facilitate cross-slope fl
 ow. The theoretical background and a 1 ½ layer ‘reduced physics’ mode
 l for these near-bottom gravity currents is reviewed\, a classification of
  cascades and their life-cycle phases is introduced and some observations 
 from the Storfjorden cascade in Svalbard are presented.\n\nResults from re
 cent modelling experiments in POLCOMS and NEMO show that a hydrostatic oce
 an circulation model is capable of representing the correct boundary layer
  physics to successfully model cascading. The models are first validated a
 gainst laboratory experiments and then set up to simulate conditions that 
 were not created in the laboratory to study the properties and behaviour o
 f density-stratified cascades. \n
LOCATION:British Antarctic Survey\, Room 330B
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