The first three years of SeaWiFS data (1997-2000) provide the most complete quantification to date of chlorophyll seasonal variability along the full latitudinal extent of the four major eastern boundary currents (EBCs). Comparisons to previously published chlorophyll seasonal climatologies deduced from the relatively sparse coverage provided by the Coastal Zone...
Surface transports into the California Current are calculated from TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter surface height slopes during the 9.5 year period from October 1992–May 2002. These quantify the anomalous onshore and southward displacements of the water column during the 2000–2002 period, which had been hypothesized by others based on anomalous water properties...
Five years (1997–2002) of northern California Current SeaWiFS ocean color data put cold, low salinity hydrographic anomalies observed in summer 2002 into a spatial/temporal context and present their biological ramifications. Monthly mean chlorophyll concentrations were >1.0 mg m–3 larger than the previous 3 year average over the entire shelf from...
Physical and biological fields in the coastal transition zone off northern California were measured during February, March, May and June 1987 in an extended alongshore region between 60 km and 150 km offshore. The spring transition, as seen in coastal sea level and winds, occurred in mid-March. Surface variability during...
Data from the Coastal Transition Zone (CTZ) experiment are used to describe the velocity fields and water properties associate with cold filaments in the California Current. Combined with previous field surveys and satellite imagery, these show seasonal variability with maximum dynamic height ranges and velocities in summer and minimum values...
The objective of this article is to present evidence for
the existence of seasonal variability in sea surface height
(SSH) anomaly in the Agulhas Retroflection region.
TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data are used to estimate
seasonal changes in the mesoscale SSH variability.
There is a seasonal oscillation of SSH variability characterized
by...
Present methods used to retrieve altimeter data do not provide reliable estimates of
sea surface height (SSH) in the nearshore region, resulting in a measurement gap of
25–50 km next to the coast. In the present work, gridded SSH fields produced by
Archiving, Validation, and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic data...
In this paper, we evaluate the temporal and horizontal resolution of geostrophic
surface velocities calculated from TOPEX satellite altimeter heights. Moored velocities
(from vector-averaging current meters and an acoustic Doppler current profiler) at depths
below the Ekman layer are used to estimate the temporal evolution and accuracy of
altimeter geostrophic...
We used wavelet analyses of sea surface height (SSH) from >13 years of satellite
altimeter data to characterize the variability in mesoscale circulation in the northern
California Current (35°N–49°N) and explore the mechanisms of variability. We defined
‘‘mesoscale’’ circulation as features, such as eddies and filaments, which have 50- to...
In this article we analyze the momentum and vorticity balances of a numerical
simulation of the upwelling circulation off central Chile (34° –40°S) and its response to
interannual local wind changes. Our analysis indicates that the path of the upwelling jet is
strongly controlled by the bottom topography. This topographic...