A Frontal Challenge for Climate Models

Wide-swath altimetry technology will provide the first global pictures of the strong surface flows associated with temperature and salinity fronts at the surface of the ocean. Likening the function of the myriad fronts separating different water masses in the ocean with that of the alveoli in a lung, Ferrari explains "Just as [alveoli] facilitate the rapid exchange of gases when breathing, fronts are the ducts through which heat, carbon, oxygen, and other climatically important gases enter into the deep ocean". Read Ferrari's short perspectives article A Frontal Challenge for Climate Models, to find out how SWOT will teach us about mixing at ocean fronts and how this improved understanding should lead to more accurate climate prediction.

PAOC ›