HR: 1400h
AN: OS23B-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Tidal and inertial currents in the southern Bay of Campeche, southern Gulf of Mexico
AU: * Exposito-Diaz, G
EM: exposito@icmyl.unam.mx
AF: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia de la UNAM, Circuito Exterior S/N Cd. Universitaria, Mexico, DF 04510, Mexico
AB: Data from March 1 to June 17, 1997 of currents, water temperature, salinity, and sea level in the southern Bay of Campeche were used to describe tidal and inertial currents. Data were low pass filtered using a Lanczos type filter, and transformed to the frequency space with classical Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and Morlet Wavelets Method (MWM). Results presented the strongest currents in the southwestern part of the bay, with a dominant east-west component. The predominant direction of the current was parallel to the coast, and followed the bathymetry, depicting the strong barotropic effect. The amplitude of tidal current was very small when compared to total amplitudes. The spectral energy was concentrated at the low frequencies bands, correspond to inertial periods, with an approximate duration between two to three days. Some of these oscillations were also observed in the progressive vectors diagrams. The dominance of the spectral energy at low frequencies demonstrated the influence of the mesoscale cyclonic and the small anticyclonic eddies, of the northeastern Bay of Campeche, in southwestern currents.
DE: 1222 Ocean monitoring with geodetic techniques (1225, 1641, 3010, 4532, 4556, 4560, 6959)
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4544 Internal and inertial waves
DE: 4560 Surface waves and tides (1222)
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly