Worthington L. Valentine

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Worthington
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L. Valentine
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  • Technical Report
    A census of Gulf Stream rings, spring 1975
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1979-02) Richardson, Philip L. ; Cheney, Robert E. ; Worthington, L. Valentine
    During 1975 several shipboard expendable bathythermograph surveys plus satellite infrared imagery provided a nearly synoptic view of the distribution and number of Gulf Stream rings in the western North Atlantic. Twelve rings were identified; nine were cyclonic (cold core) rings and three were anticyclonic (warm core) rings. This is the largest number of rings ever observed during a short period of time (4 months). Evidence suggests that the mean movement of these rings was southwestward.
  • Technical Report
    Anomalous water mass distributions at 55W in the North Atlantic in 1977
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1980-12) McCartney, Michael S. ; Worthington, L. Valentine ; Raymer, Mary E.
    A hydrographic section made in July 1977 from the research vessel KNORR revealed a large-scale meridional distortion of the normal water mass distributions at 55W in the North Atlantic. Cells of pure Labrador Sea Water were found within both the Gulf Stream and the westward recirculation of the gyre. A large cell of Mediterranean Water was found in the Slope Water, in contact with a cell of Subarctic Intermediate Water. Water at 11°C to 13°C within both the Gulf Stream and the Slope Water was anomalously saline. Throughout the Slope Water, Gulf Stream, and northern Sargasso Sea there was very little standard Western North Atlantic Water in the temperature ranges 3.4° to 9.0°C and 11° to 13°C. It is suggested that these meridional distortions are due in part to an increase in the amount of rotation of the horizontal velocity vector with depth during 1977 that was observed with current meters in the northern Sargasso Sea. An increase in the westward return flow strength may also have contributed. The ultimate cause of the anomalous property distributions and currents may be changes in the production rate and strength of the source waters for North Atlantic Deep Water and western North Atlantic Water such as Labrador Sea Water, Mediterranean Water, and Eighteen Degree Water. The first and the last are known to have undergone convective formation events, in March 1976, and March 1977, respectively, in the period preceding the 1977 survey. The July 1977 section shows evidence of the recirculation of the new convectively formed Eighteen Degree Water.
  • Technical Report
    Large cyclonic rings from the northeast Sargasso Sea
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1978-12) McCartney, Michael S. ; Worthington, L. Valentine ; Schmitz, William J.
    Expendable bathythermograph observations have revealed large cold core cyclonic current rings to the east of 60°W in a region that mechanical bathythermograph observations (Parker, 1971) indicated to be devoid of rings. As a class these rings are larger than typical Gulf Stream rings that form and drift west of 60°W. The typical diameter (15°C at 500 m) there is around 100 km, while the eastern Sargasso rings are 200 km and more in diameter. Several of these eastern rings were observed on each of four cruises in the northern Sargasso Sea in 1974 and 1975. The overall picture of the region east of 60°W obtained was a very noisy one, dominated by large‐diameter, large‐amplitude eddies. One of the eastern rings was seen in all four cruises and was observed to drift westward for over 730 km at an average speed of 4.4 km/d, starting at 56°30′W and 34°40′N and passing north of Bermuda. The character of the dissolved oxygen anomalies in the cores of the eastern rings suggests a possible formation region at the eastern end of the Sargasso Sea gyre, around 40°W. Hence the eastern rings may have already been a year old when first observed in November 1974. A single deep hydrographic section showed the center of the deep circulation to lie considerably further southwest than the near‐surface circulation center, although this could be a distortion due to a large seamount. Moored current meter data suggest a level of no motion within eastern rings at about 2000 m, giving a weak anticyclonic circulation of 4 × 106 m3/s below that level, compared with the 45 × 106 m3/s cyclonic circulation above 2000 m. On several occasions, smaller‐scale upward displacements of the thermal structure were seen at the sides of eastern rings. It is not known whether these represented interactions with smaller rings or some breakdown of the circular symmetry.
  • Technical Report
    Oceanographic data from the R.R.S. Discovery II. : International Geophysical Year cruise 3, 1958
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1959-11) Worthington, L. Valentine
    In August and September 1958 a number of oceanographic sections were made in the R.R.S. DISCOVERY II, Captain James Gray, under the scientific leadership of H. F. P. Herdman. These sections comprise part of a joint program undertaken by the National Institute of Oceanography and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the International Geophysical Year.