HR: 1400h
AN: OS53A-15    [Abstracts]
TI: The Death of Two Eddies, Against the Shelf
AU: * Zavala-Trujillo, B
EM: bzavala@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Badan, A
EM: abadan@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Rivas, D
EM: drivas@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Ochoa, J
EM: jochoa@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Sheinbaum, J
EM: julios@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Candela, J
EM: jcandela@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Depto. Oceanografía Física. Apdo. postal 360, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AB: A set of five moorings deployed in front of the coast of Tamaulipas, western Gulf of Mexico, provided fourteen months (from August 2004 to November 2005) of surface to bottom observations of currents and temperature that document the processes associated with the collision and dissipation of two warm mesoscale eddies with the continental slope. Two Loop Current eddies (Titanic and Ulysses) were identified reaching the study area during the observation period. On September 2004, the two southernmost 2000-m moorings show that temperature and salinity increases throughout the entire water column, related to eddy Titanic; similarily; on April 2005, eddy Ulysses caused a strong increase of temperature in the 3500-m mooring. The velocity field suggests three different régimes: a coastal region, the continental slope currents, and the abyssal circulation. Over the slope, three different layers can be identified: a surface layer (above 500 m depth), influenced by eddies and transients, a deep layer (under de 1900 m) with a persistent southerly current and a transition layer (from 500 to 1900 m) that separates them. The variance ellipses at ~ 700 m at the 3500-m mooring have no a predominant orientation of the mayor axis. At the northernmost 2000-m mooring, the axis of maximum variation is oriented with the bathymetry, but at the southernmost 2000-m mooring it is perpendicular to the coast. The spectral characteristics of the measurements are also discussed.
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4515 Deep recirculations
DE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes
DE: 4562 Topographic/bathymetric interactions
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly