Proposal Defense: Lu Han

A PhD Proposal Defense from UNC Marine Sciences graduate student, Lu Han. Presented by the UNC at Chapel Hill Department of Marine Sciences. The location of this event will be in conference room 3204 on the 3rd floor of Murray Hall on UNC-CH campus in Chapel Hill, NC. This event will be held on Wednesday, August 21st at 2:00 pm. This seminar will also be broadcast live to both UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences room 222 and online via Zoom.

Seminar Title: Shelf water export and water mass analysis around Cape Hatteras

Abstract: The confluent western boundary currents of subpolar and subtropical oceanic gyres and the convergence in the adjacent shelf and slope waters together lead to substantial net export of shelf waters to the deep ocean. The export is driven by the strong forcing typical of midlatitude western ocean margins, including wind, western boundary currents and shelf water properties. It plays an important role in the global carbon budget, the transport of nutrients, pollutants and biomass, as well as modulation of storm tracks and intensity, with significant environmental, economic, and societal implications. However, the processes and dynamics governing the export remains poorly understood. Cape Hatteras provides an ideal location to examine processes driving shelf water export, due to the large dynamic ranges of forcing, documented large and episodic shelf water export, and the compact spatial area over which many processes occur. My dissertation will focus on providing a comprehensive examination of the processes of shelf water export around Cape Hatteras at synoptic, seasonal, and longer timescales using data from PEACH observational array and historical hydrographic data archives. The study will thoroughly document two anomalous shelf water export schemes, and significantly improve our understanding of the shelf water export process. Unsupervised machine learning models will complement the traditional principle component analysis approach for investigating the water properties of various water masses reaching Cape Hatteras. Moreover, I will examine how water mass properties affect the frontal currents and cross-shelf transport.