Resolving Ocean Macroscale Turbulence

ongoing

"""Resolving Ocean Macroscale Turbulence"" (ROTurb) is a proposal to fund a fellowship to be carried out by the Experienced Researcher (ER) Simone Silvestri at the host institution Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy (POLITO) in the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI) under the supervision of main host Professor Jost von Hardenberg. The aim of the proposed work is twofold. From a scientific perspective, the goal is to investigate the role of macroscale turbulent processes in ocean models through a hierarchy of coupled ocean sea ice simulations that follow the ocean model intercomparison project OMIP2. Regarding technological innovation, the aim is to develop a submesoscale permitting model that runs at climate-relevant scales. Macroscale turbulence in the ocean, broadly subdivided into mesoscale and submesoscale features, is the primary driver of the lateral transport of heat, carbon, and nutrients. Furthermore, submesoscales, associated with surface fronts, have been suggested to play a pivotal role in determining the vertical transport of heat and carbon in the ocean and modulating air-sea fluxes. However, due to their small scale, these processes are typically not represented in global ocean models. The ER and colleagues have recently developed a model that, by leveraging Graphical Processing Units (GPUs), achieves computational performance up to 100 times higher than state-of-the-art models. This new model, called ClimaOcean, enables unprecedented high-resolution simulations, making it possible to explore kilometer-scale turbulent processes and their impact on climate-relevant metrics within a global ocean framework for the first time."