Amrapalli Garanaik
Oregon State University, OR·Earth & Environmental Science
The thin top layer of the ocean acts as the gateway between air and sea. Turbulence in this upper ocean boundary layer moves heat, gases and momentum from the atmosphere into the deeper ocean.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
Engineering
- Topics
physical oceanography
ocean surface boundary layer
upper ocean mixing
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Develop a new second-moment model of the upper ocean boundary layer that represents both local and nonlocal turbulent transport, tuned to observations and Large-Eddy Simulation results.
- Compile a database of upper-ocean turbulence properties from about 25 years of Lagrangian float measurements, presented in forms useful to ocean modelers.
- Use the float database to tune and validate the new boundary-layer model and to guide testing of other mixing schemes, distributing it through the General Ocean Turbulence Model framework.
More about the research
That transfer shapes water properties and influences climate. Yet ocean circulation models cannot resolve this small-scale turbulence. They must approximate it with simplified rules called parameterizations, and many of these rest on flawed physical assumptions.
Why it matters
Better representation of upper-ocean mixing could improve predictions from ocean and climate models across many space and time scales, including models of ocean chemistry and biology. A shared, model-ready turbulence database would give the modeling community a common benchmark for testing and improving mixing schemes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Andrey Shcherbina
University of Washington, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure how anisotropic (direction-dependent) and inhomogeneous ocean surface boundary layer turbulence is, using two drifting Lagrangian floats each carrying customized ADCPs with 10 acoustic beams.
Tomas Chor
University of Maryland, MD·Earth & Environmental Science
Examine how symmetric instabilities, an overturning motion that grows at ocean fronts, modify the forward cascade of energy toward smaller scales at submesoscale fronts in the presence of mesoscale strain.
Brodie Pearson
Oregon State University, OR·Earth & Environmental Science
Develop statistical methods that use the anisotropy of turbulence to distinguish 3-D upper ocean mixing regimes driven by heating or cooling, wind shear and wave-wind interactions.
The school
Oregon State University: 29 labs on PI Pages, $372M a year on research, 238 research doctorates a year.
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