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    Wintertime observations of Subtropical Mode Water formation within the Gulf Stream

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    Article (983.6Kb)
    Figure S1: Upstream and downstream structure of the Gulf Stream in the winter of 2007 when the CLIMODE data were collected. (2.046Mb)
    Figure S2: Histograms of regions of negative EPV for the section under analysis. (792.5Kb)
    Figure S3: Structure of the % oxygen saturation, fluorescence, potential density, and absolute momentum. (1.310Mb)
    Additional file information (4.415Kb)
    Date
    2009-01-28
    Author
    Joyce, Terrence M.  Concept link
    Thomas, Leif N.  Concept link
    Bahr, Frank B.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3377
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035918
    DOI
    10.1029/2008GL035918
    Keyword
     Mode water formation; Convection in ocean fronts 
    Abstract
    We study the structure of Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) within the eastward-flowing Gulf Stream as it forms during strong winter cooling. Shipboard observations using SeaSoar and ADCP reveal that while active mixing by gravitational instabilities is common, large vertical and lateral shears of the Gulf Stream play a central role in determination of the modes of active mixing. Evidence is presented that low static stability and large vertical shear can combine to cause slantwise convection/symmetric instabilities, while the large anticyclonic shears to the south of the Gulf Stream core can cause low absolute vorticity and precondition the Ertel potential vorticity to be small and more susceptible to instabilities. The area of active mixing driven by surface forcing in the presences of shear occupies a swath 50–90 km wide immediately south of the Gulf Stream core at the northern edge of the Sargasso Sea.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 36 (2009): L02607, doi:10.1029/2008GL035918.
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Geophysical Research Letters 36 (2009): L02607
     

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