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    Laboratory experiments on eddy generation by a buoyant coastal current flowing over variable bathymetry

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    jpo2857%2E1.pdf (1.412Mb)
    Date
    2006-03
    Author
    Wolfe, Christopher L.  Concept link
    Cenedese, Claudia  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4217
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO2857.1
    DOI
    10.1175/JPO2857.1
    Abstract
    Irminger rings are warm-core eddies formed off the west coast of Greenland. Recent studies suggest that these eddies, which are implicated in the rapid springtime restratification of the Labrador Sea, are formed by an internal instability of the West Greenland Current (WGC), triggered by bathymetric variations. This study seeks to explore the effect of the magnitude and downstream length scale of bathymetric variations on the stability of a simple model of the WGC in a series of laboratory experiments in which a buoyant coastal current was allowed to flow over bathymetry consisting of piecewise constant slopes of varying magnitude. The currents did not form eddies over gently sloping bathymetry and only formed eddies over steep bathymetry if the current width exceeded the width of the sloping bathymetry. Eddying currents were immediately stabilized if they flowed onto gently sloping topography. Bathymetric variations that persisted only a short distance downstream perturbed the flow locally but did not lead to eddy formation. Eddies formed only once the downstream length of the bathymetric variations exceeded a critical scale of about 8 Rossby radii. These results are consistent with the observed behavior of the WGC, which begins to form Irminger rings after entering a region where the continental slope abruptly steepens and becomes narrower than the WGC itself in a region spanning about 20–80 Rossby radii of downstream distance.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 36 (2006): 395-411, doi:10.1175/JPO2857.1.
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    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Physical Oceanography 36 (2006): 395-411
     
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