diff --git a/book/chapters/ocean_science.ipynb b/book/chapters/ocean_science.ipynb index bbf8ca4..ac60009 100644 --- a/book/chapters/ocean_science.ipynb +++ b/book/chapters/ocean_science.ipynb @@ -29,19 +29,64 @@ "'Why?' in mind before startingin on the 'What?' and the 'How?'\n", "\n", "\n", - "Let's start with an ambitious question." + "Let's start with an ambitious question.

" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ - "${\\Large \\textrm{How stable is the epipelagic ocean?}}$\n", - "\n", - "Of course this begs the question what is meant by 'stable' but before I get to that: \n", - "Let's anticipate a quibble about the term 'epipelagic ocean'. *Epipelagic* is more or\n", - "less synomymous with *photic*, the upper 200 meters of the water column where we can \n", - "expand to find downwelling sunlight in some degree. " + "${\\Large \\textrm{How stable is the epipelagic ocean?}}$" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "markdown", + "metadata": {}, + "source": [ + "

\n", + "Of course this begs the question of what is meant by 'stable'... but before I get to that\n", + "let's anticipate a quibble over the term 'epipelagic ocean'. *Epipelagic* is more or\n", + "less synomymous with *sunlit* or *photic* and it is applied as a modifier to *zone*. \n", + "That is, the upper 200 meter layer of the water column is the epipelagic zone; \n", + "this being the maximal depth of downwelling sunlight in some degree.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Downwelling sunlight is the baseline energy source for primary production by phytoplankton\n", + "living in the upper ocean. \n", + "Hence the epipelagic zone is the engine that converts solar energy into chemical energy\n", + "that powers the ecological food web.\n", + "I'm coopting the zone into *epipelagic ocean* to recognize that \n", + "the epipelagic zone changes in nature from one place to another. Placing shallow\n", + "profilers in vast quantity is prohibitively expensive; so for this project we will\n", + "begin with just three. But these are incredibly high-resolution sensor platforms; \n", + "and by virtue of having three shallow profilers to work with we can contribute\n", + "to our stability question in two ways. First we can do fine-scale characterization \n", + "at those three points. Second we can hope to identify\n", + "key features of the water column that might be amenable to other sensor programs, \n", + "particularly ARGO and satellite remote sensing of the sea surface.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Now to turn to *stability*. A list of apparent interpretive parameters includes:\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "- physical stability: temperature, density of water, available light\n", + "- chemical stability: salinity, dissolved oxygen, inorganic carbon\n", + "- biological stability: nutrient concentration (nitrates), particulate distribution, fluorescence, ...\n", + "- depth axis, scales from centimeters to 200 meters\n", + "- lateral structure, scales from meters to mesoscale (hundreds of kilometers)\n", + "- time scales: minutes to days to seasonal to annual to multi-year climatology\n", + "- perturbation in relation to larger phenomena\n", + " - sea state, storms, temperature, upwelling, eddies, currents, terrigenous influence (runoff)\n", + "- perturbation in relation to small phenomena such as plankton lensing\n", + "- stability of stratified sub-structure\n", + " - mixed layer depth, multiple clines (barocline, thermocline etcetera), lower epipelagic\n", + " \n", + " \n", + "From an empirical perspective these dimensions of stability can in many cases be seen as\n", + "forms of standard deviation. But that is looking ahead to strategy; and we aren't really\n", + "to that point yet. Hopefully one thing is clear, that by defining *stability* in this\n", + "multidimensional way I am ushering in a great deal of interest in the *structure* of \n", + "the upper ocean.\n" ] }, {