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...
A carefully calibrated primitive-equation model from 41°N to 48°N is used to study the poleward undercurrent off the US west coast. Chapter 2 describes poleward flow over the slope from Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives. The model is robust, in the sense of several characteristics being qualitatively consistent with observational and...
Sea surface temperature (SST) fronts are determined for the 2001–2004 time period
from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) data in the California
Current System (CCS). The probability of detecting a SST front at an individual pixel
location in the CCS is presented as a bi-monthly climatology. Fronts clearly indicate the...
Measurements of surface wind stress by the SeaWinds scatterometer on NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite are analyzed and compared with several different atmospheric model products, from an operational model and two high-resolution nested regional models, during two summer periods, June through September 2000 and 2001, in the coastal region west...
The low-frequency dynamics of coastal upwelling and cross-shelf transport in the Central and Southern California Current System (CCS) are investigated using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) over the period 1965-2008. An ensemble of passive tracers released in the numerical model is used to characterize the effects of linear (Ekman...
The Oregon Coastal Transition Zone (OCTZ) extends several hundred
kilometers offshore where shelf flows interact with the northern California Current. A
primitive-equation numerical ocean model is used to study the upwelling circulation in this
region from 1 May to 1 November 2001. This OCTZ model obtains initial and boundary
conditions...
Eddy detection and tracking algorithms are applied to both satellite altimetry and a
high‐resolution (dx = 5 km) climatological model solution of the U.S. West Coast to study
the properties of surface and undercurrent eddies in the California Current System.
Eddy properties show remarkable similarity in space and time, and...
In eastern boundary current upwelling ecosystems, mesoscale circulation features such as eddies and upwelling filaments play a prominent role in the transfer of water and the associated plankton from the productive nearshore to the oligotrophic deep sea. The relationship between mesoscale circulation, zooplankton distributions, and the across-shelf transport of coastal...
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...
The seasonal cycle of the near-surface circulation off central Chile was analyzed using satellite altimetry and an oceanic model. To evaluate the role of the wind stress curl on the circulation we performed two identical simulations except for the wind-forcing: the "control run" used long-term monthly mean wind stress and...