Principal Investigator Raffaele Ferrari
Project Website http://www.climode.org/
Project Start Date July 2005
Project End Date December 2008
CLIvar MOde Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE) is a project to study the dynamics of 'Eighteen Degree Water' (EDW), the subtropical mode water of the North Atlantic. EDW is but one example of a pervasive tendency for mode waters to form adjacent to strong baroclinic fronts in all the world's oceans. EDW is a canonical example of a subtropical mode water, all of which are found in regions of significant air-sea exchange. EDW is created in the winter just south of the Gulf Stream, by convection in the presence of strong shear, with competing effects of vertical/lateral mixing and advection/stirring colluding to set its properties. This project stems from two years of CLIVAR planning (with advice and support of both the Atlantic and US CLIVAR committees) to develop an experiment to attack a key process that is poorly understood and poorly represented in ocean climate models -- i.e. the treatment of convection, eddy and mixing processes in setting properties of subtropical mode waters, the associated air-sea interaction, and the exchange of fluid between the mixed layer and the upper ocean. The scientific goals of CLIMODE are focused in 4 areas:
(*) Air Sea Interaction(*) Eddies and Mixing(*) Subduction & Circulation(*) Modeling
CLIMODE will have broad scientific impact because it directly addresses oceanic phenomena and atmosphere–ocean coupling that have climatic significance but which are inadequately represented in climate models. Furthermore, through assessment/validation of the climate model parameterizations of these processes, CLIMODE will have considerable societal impact. The program will also contribute to the career advancement of several graduate students and postdoctoral investigators who will participate in the study. On average during the 5-year program, CLIMODE will directly support 5 students and 4 to 5 postdocs each year.