1. Observations on the Lateral Structure of Wind-Driven Flows in a Stratified, Semiarid Bay of the Gulf of California
- Author
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Aurélien Ponte, Kraig B. Winters, Clinton D. Winant, Guillermo Gutierrez-de-Velasco, Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, Chloe Winant, Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida [Gainesville] (UF), Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California [San Diego] (UC San Diego), University of California-University of California, and Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Education Superior de Ensenada [Mexico] (CICESE)
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Stratified flows ,Stratification (water) ,Empirical orthogonal functions ,Aquatic Science ,Atmospheric sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Wind-driven flow ,Physics::Fluid Dynamics ,Synoptic scale meteorology ,Transect ,[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography ,Semiarid ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,One half ,Ecology ,Advection ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Climatology ,Stratification ,Concepcion Bay ,Bay ,Geology - Abstract
International audience; Time series of current velocity profiles and thermistor chains were obtained throughout a cross-bay transect for ~90 days for the purpose of comparing observed wind-driven stratified flows to theory. This study concentrates on the synoptic scale wind and its influence on the bay’s circulation. The maximum water column stratification was 3 – 4 °C/m throughout the deployment and influenced wind-driven flows. Low-pass filtered flows showed more complicated structures than those expected from theory: a depth-dependent recirculating structure with the along-bay flow over one half of the transect moving in opposite direction to the other half. Analysis of complex empirical orthogonal functions indicated that the first six modes explained 80 % of the flow variability. Therefore, there was no predominantly energetic mode of variability. All modesexhibited a rich spatial structure with vertical and lateral variations. For all modes there was vertically sheared bidirectional flow, as expected from theory, with the largest eigenvector (mode value) asymmetrically influenced by Earth’s rotation and advection of momentum.
- Published
- 2013
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