• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Shelfbreak frontal structure and processes north of Cape Hatteras in winter

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    s4.pdf (18.50Mb)
    Date
    2008-11
    Author
    Gawarkiewicz, Glen G.  Concept link
    Churchill, James H.  Concept link
    Bahr, Frank B.  Concept link
    Linder, Christopher A.  Concept link
    Marquette, Craig D.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/2833
    As published
    http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jmr/jmr/2008/00000066/00000006/art00004
    Abstract
    The circulation north of Cape Hatteras is complicated by the proximity of the shelfbreak front, the Gulf Stream, and convergent shelf flow from the Middle and South Atlantic Bights. A three-week cruise in this region in January/February, 2005 was undertaken in order to study the structure of the shelfbreak front as it terminates near Cape Hatteras and to quantify the freshwater transport from the Middle Atlantic Bight shelf into the Gulf Stream. Two strongly contrasting conditions were identified. Early in the cruise, the Gulf Stream directly abutted the shelfbreak at Cape Hatteras and drove a northward flow over the continental shelf as far north as 35°45′N. All of the Middle Atlantic Bight shelf water terminated by 35°30′N. Ten days later, the Gulf Stream had moved away from the shelfbreak south of Cape Hatteras and strong winds from the north were present. During this time, the shelfbreak frontal jet was strong (maximum southward velocity of approximately 0.5 m s-1 with a Rossby number of 2) and abruptly turned eastward and offshore between 35°35′N and 35°45′N. Freshwater transport eastward from the shelfbreak jet was 7.4 mSv and southward over the shelf was 19.9 mSv, giving a total freshwater transport of 27.3 mSv. This likely represents an upper bound due to the strong wind forcing. Implications of these results for the freshwater budget of the Middle Atlantic Bight shelf, stability properties of the shelfbreak front in this region, and the formation of “Ford water” in the Gulf Stream are discussed.
    Description
    Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 66 (2008): 755-799.
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Marine Research 66 (2008): 755-799
     
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo