• 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

    Downfront winds over buoyant coastal plumes

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    jpo-d-16-0042%2E1.pdf (11.70Mb)
    Date
    2016-10-07
    Author
    Spall, Michael A.  Concept link
    Thomas, Leif N.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8544
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-16-0042.1
    DOI
    10.1175/JPO-D-16-0042.1
    Keyword
     Coastal flows; Ekman pumping/transport; Mesoscale processes; Wind stress 
    Abstract
    Downfront, or downwelling favorable, winds are commonly found over buoyant coastal plumes. It is known that these winds can result in mixing of the plume with the ambient water and that the winds influence the transport, spatial extent, and stability of the plumes. In the present study, the interaction of the Ekman velocity in the surface layer and baroclinic instability supported by the strong horizontal density gradient of the plume is explored with the objective of understanding the potential vorticity and buoyancy budgets. The approach makes use of an idealized numerical model and scaling theory. It is shown that when winds are present the weak stratification resulting from vertical mixing and the strong baroclinicity of the front results in near-zero average potential vorticity q. For weak to moderate winds, the reduction of q by diapycnal mixing is balanced by the generation of q through the geostrophic stress term in the regions of strong horizontal density gradients and stable stratification. However, for very strong winds the wind stress overwhelms the geostrophic stress and leads to a reduction in q, which is balanced by the vertical mixing term. In the absence of winds, the geostrophic stress dominates mixing and the flow rapidly restratifies. Nonlinearity, extremes of relative vorticity and vertical velocity, and mixing are all enhanced by the presence of a coast. Scaling estimates developed for the eddy buoyancy flux, the surface potential vorticity flux, and the diapycnal mixing rate compare well with results diagnosed from a series of numerical model calculations.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2016. 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 46 (2016): 3139-3154, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-16-0042.1.
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 (2016): 3139-3154
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Coastal Landform System Sustainability Project : an analysis of activities permitted on coastal landforms on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1999 

      O'Connell, James F. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2000-08)
      In their natural state, the coastal landform systems of Cape Cod are self-sustaining. However, recognition that humans have become intrinsic agents in the evolution of coastal landscapes is significant. There is a great ...
    • Thumbnail

      Coastal ocean processes inner-shelf study : coastal and moored physical oceanographic measurements 

      Alessi, Carol A.; Lentz, Steven J.; Austin, Jay A. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1996-05)
      To improve our understanding of the physical and biological processes influencing plantonic larval distributions over the inner shelf, an interdisciplinary field program funded by the National Science Foundation's Coastal ...
    • Thumbnail

      The United States' next generation of atmospheric composition and coastal ecosystem measurements : NASA's Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Mission 

      Fishman, J.; Iraci, L. T.; Al-Saadi, J.; Chance, K.; Chavez, Francisco P.; Chin, M.; Coble, Paula G.; Davis, Curtiss O.; DiGiacomo, P. M.; Edwards, D.; Eldering, A.; Goes, Joachim I.; Herman, J.; Hu, Chuanmin; Jacob, Daniel J.; Jordan, C.; Kawa, S. Randolph; Key, R.; Liu, X.; Lohrenz, Steven E.; Mannino, Antonio; Natraj, V.; Neil, D.; Neu, J.; Newchurch, M. J.; Pickering, K.; Salisbury, Joseph E.; Sosik, Heidi M.; Subramaniam, A.; Tzortziou, Maria; Wang, Jian; Wang, M. (American Meteorological Society, 2012-10)
      The Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission was recommended by the National Research Council's (NRC's) Earth Science Decadal Survey to measure tropospheric trace gases and aerosols and coastal ...
    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