Competing Energy Cascades and Their Implications for Ocean Mixing Across a Spectrum of Environments

Mixing of heat, salt, nutrients, and other tracers in the ocean occurs across a range of spatial scales, involving a wide variety of dynamical processes and interactions between them. Understanding the regional and global impacts of all these mixing processes is essential for improving how ocean circulation and associated critical air-sea interactions are represented in numerical models that predict our weather, sea states, and currents, as well as for developing ocean solutions for the future. Furthermore, learning how ocean mixing has changed throughout geological time both here and in other planetary systems is key to addressing profound questions, such what makes planets habitable. The 2026 Ocean Mixing Gordon Research Conference will bring together oceanographers and fluid dynamicists focused on observing, modeling, and predicting ocean mixing and its consequences, with an emphasis on fostering new interactions between people working on different aspects of the problem, using distinct and complementary approaches, and at varied career levels, through focused discussions and facilitated informal networking activities. The 2026 GRC on Ocean Mixing will be immediately preceded by the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Ocean Mixing, specifically for early career scientists, who are encouraged to attend both meetings at Mount Holyoke College.