Bibliography update on the California current system and related mesoscale ocean modeling

This bibliography updates the following publication: Mooers, C.N.K., R.G. Williams, K.C. Vierra and G.R. Halliwell, Jr., 1980. Bibliogrphy for the Coastal Circulation of the Eastern North Pacific. College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, 77 pp.This bibliography has been prepared for use in the Ocean Prediction Through Observation, Modeling and Analysis (OPTOMA) program. It updates the 1980 publication "Bibliography for the Coastal Ciruclation of the Eastern North Pacific." In addition, mesoscale ocean modeling references related to the California Current System has been included.Prepared for: Office of Naval Research, Environmental Sciences Directorate (Code 420) Arlington, VAhttp://archive.org/details/bibliographyupda00batt61153N N0001484 WR24051NAApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The Coasean Framework of the New York City Watershed Agreement

Over 50 years ago, in “The Problem of Social Cost,” Ronald Coase (1960) attempted to reorient the economics profession’s treatment of externalities. He wanted to draw economists’ attention away from the world of pure competition as a policy standard and investigate the consequences of transaction costs and property rights for the operation of markets. In 1991, he was awarded the Nobel prize in economics “for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy” (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1991). The Academy cited both his 1960 article and his 1937 article “The Nature of the Firm.

Mesoscale patterns in the Cape Sao Vicente (Iberian Peninsula) upwelling region

The coastal upwelling region near Cape Sao Vicente, the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula where the southern zonal coast meets the meridional western coast, was studied using over 1200 advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) satellite images of sea surface temperature and time series of sea level height, wind velocities, and nearshore sea surface temperature recorded at coastal sites within 200 km of the cape. Summer upwelling is more intense and persistent off the western coast than off the southern coast, where a recurrent warm coastal countercurrent flows westward, and at times turns northward along the western coast after reaching the cape. In this region the equatorward current jet of cold water upwelled off the western coast is no longer bounded by a coast. Three preferred directions for the spreading of this water are identified. The most persistent is eastward along the southern shelf break and slope, possibly merging with waters previously upwelled locally, which becomes separated from shore by the coastal progression of the warmer counterflow. The second preferred direction results in the southward development of a cold filament feature fed by cold waters upwelled farther north and represents the southernmost extent of the intense coastal upwelling jet, which overshoots the cape. The least frequent feature to develop is a cold filament that grows westward at the latitude of the cape, appearing to result from the meandering of the equatorward jet. The coastal countercurrent is seen to interact with the equatorward jet at times of relaxation, not only by separating the cold upwelled water from the coast but, when it is energetic enough, breaking westward offshore through the equatorward cold flow and separating the eastward and southward cold features from the upcoast cold waters. Empirical evidence shows the presence of an alongshore pressure gradient, stronger in summer, driving the coastal progression of the warm counterflow. Wind forcing plays an important role in the circulation by augmenting or diminishing the effect of the preexisting alongshore pressure gradients. The extent of the progression of the warm coastal countercurrent along the southern and western coast is dictated by the the strength of the upwelling favorable wind stress, which is able to balance and reverse the alongshore flow, at least in the upper layers

Effect of salinity on density in the Leeuwin Current System

Climatological temperature and salinity fields are used to calculate the salinity contribution to density and dynamic height fields in the Leeuwin Current System( LCS). While the temperature gradient is primarily linear, with warmest water to the north, the salinity fields are spatially inhomogeneous. A comparison of density fields, calculated with constant and variable salinity, shows that, off Western Australia, the density field is primarily determined by temperature. Off southwestern Australia, the density field is dependent on warm and salty (subtropical) and fresh and cold (sub-Antarctic) water masses. While the dynamic height fields, calculated with constant and variable salinity, show similar flow patterns off Western Australia, different flow patterns are found off southwestern Australia. In addition to the analysis of climatological fields,a primitive equation ocean model is used in a process-oriented study to investigate the role of salinity in the formation of currents and eddies in the LCS. Two identical ocean models, one with a climatological salinity field and the other with no horizontal salinity gradients, are run and compared with each other. Despite the model runs being initialized with similar temperature distributions there are relatively large temperature and density differences in the southwestern Australian region due to the advection of water masses by the Leeuwin Current. On the basis of the climatological analyses and the results of the model experiments, it is concluded that, descriptively and dynamically, both temperature and salinity are essential to accurately characterize the large-scale circulation of the LCS.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant OCE-9203325 and by direct funding at the Naval Postgraduate School, with the office of Naval Research as the sponsor

Wind-forced modeling studies of currents, meanders, and eddies in the California Current system

This process-oriented study of the California Current system( CCS) uses a high-resolution, multilevel, primitive equation ocean model on a/3 plane to isolate the response of that eastern boundary oceanic regime to temporal and spatially varying wind forcing. To study the generation, evolution, and maintenance of many of the observed features such as currents, meanders, and eddies in the CCS, the model is forced from rest with seasonal climatological winds. In response to the prevailing wind direction, surface equatorward currents develop, along with upwelling of cooler water along the coast and a poleward undercurrent. Baroclinic/barotropic in stabilities in the equatorward surface current and poleward undercurrent result in the generation of meanders near the coast. As the meanders intensify, cold upwelling filaments develop along the coast and subsequently extend farther offshore. In time, the meanders form both cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, which subsequently propagate farther offshore