Project description
Deciphering the energy cascade of ocean mixing
The Earth’s climate is governed by a global conveyor belt of water, with large-scale currents transporting heat and nutrients across the planet. The energy required to sustain this motion depends on turbulent mixing at the millimetre scale. However, the process by which massive tidal forces break down into tiny, heat-dispersing eddies remains a mystery. Current climate models often rely on an empirical patchwork of approximations, leading to uncertainty in long-term forecasting. The ERC-funded OPPIWaM project aims to replace these guesses with a physics-first understanding of the ocean’s interior. It focuses on internal waves, which act as the primary conduit for energy. The planned result is a roadmap of the energy flow from the surface to the abyss.
Objective
Oceanic Physics-based Parameterizations of Internal Wave-driven Mixing (OPPIWaM) tackles one of the most pressing open problems in physical oceanography: how energy cascades toward the small scales to fuel turbulent mixing, one of the main drivers of the large-scale overturning circulation with huge impacts on the Earth’s climate. Mixing scales are below the resolution of ocean circulation models, and the current parameterizations are static and empirical, resulting in high uncertainty in model outputs.
Internal waves (IWs) represent the crucial conduit of energy from the large-scale forcings, such as winds or tides, down to the mixing scales. A grand challenge to upgrade the models’ quality is to leverage the physical properties of this IW interscale energy hub to reach a quantitative understanding of mixing based on the ocean’s equations instead of on empirical numbers.
To do so, OPPIWaM sets up an unprecedented multilevel investigation of the physics of IW-driven mixing, with three main objectives: 1. Develop a first-principle solver for the IW interscale dynamics; 2. Develop reduced-model dynamical approximations to provide interpretation as opposed to a black-box package; 3. Constrain the first-principle and reduced-model dynamics with high-resolution field studies and global observational datasets. Finally, OPPIWaM’s findings will integrate into a dynamical first-principle component ready for implementation in the models. The groundbreaking approach to achieve the objectives hinges upon concurring revolutions in theory (wave turbulence recent breakthroughs), (clustering and equation learning) algorithmic efficiency and availability, and (Argo-led) ocean-observation paradigm change.
High stakes for climate and cutting-edge theoretical, numerical and observational challenges make OPPIWaM’s objectives ambitious. Right timing and PI’s key experience and positioning within nonlinear waves and ocean mixing communities make OPPIWaM’s ambitious objectives achievable.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences oceanography
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
10124 TORINO
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.