Three-dimensional structure of a cold-core Arctic eddy interacting with the Chukchi slope current

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Date
2019-11-11Author
Scott, Ryan M.
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Pickart, Robert S.
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Lin, Peigen
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Münchow, Andreas
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Li, Min
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Stockwell, Dean A.
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Brearley, J. Alexander
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/25415As published
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015523DOI
10.1029/2019JC015523Keyword
three‐dimensional; cold‐core Arctic eddy; Chuckchi Slope Current; newly ventilated Pacific water; anti‐cyclonicAbstract
A rapid, high‐resolution shipboard survey, using a combination of lowered and expendable hydrographic measurements and vessel‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler data, provided a unique three‐dimensional view of an Arctic anti‐cyclonic cold‐core eddy. The eddy was situated 50‐km seaward of the Chukchi Sea shelfbreak over the 1,000 m isobath, embedded in the offshore side of the Chukchi slope current. The eddy core, centered near 150‐m depth, consisted of newly ventilated Pacific winter water which was high in nitrate and dissolved oxygen. Its fluorescence signal was due to phaeopigments rather than chlorophyll, indicating that photosynthesis was no longer active, consistent with an eddy age on the order of months. Subtracting out the slope current signal demonstrated that the eddy velocity field was symmetrical with a peak azimuthal speed of order 10 cm s−1. Its Rossby number was ~0.4, consistent with the fact that the measured cyclogeostrophic velocity was dominated by the geostrophic component. Different scenarios are discussed regarding how the eddy became embedded in the slope current, and what the associated ramifications are with respect to eddy spin‐down and ventilation of the Canada Basin halocline.
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© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scott, R. M., Pickart, R. S., Lin, P., Muenchow, A., Li, M., Stockwell, D. A., & Brearley, J. A. Three-dimensional structure of a cold-core Arctic eddy interacting with the Chukchi slope current. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124, (2019): 8375-8391, doi: 10.1029/2019JC015523.
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Suggested Citation
Scott, R. M., Pickart, R. S., Lin, P., Muenchow, A., Li, M., Stockwell, D. A., & Brearley, J. A. (2019). Three-dimensional structure of a cold-core Arctic eddy interacting with the Chukchi slope current. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124, 8375-8391.The following license files are associated with this item:
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