Cross-Shelf Transport Through the Interaction among a Coastal Jet, a Topographic Wave, and Tides

Shelf break flows are often characterized by along-isobath jets with cross-shelf currents associated with tides and waves guided by variable topography. Here, we address the question: Can a superposition of such flows produce significant aperiodic cross-shelf transport? To answer this question, we use a barotropic analytic model for the jet based on a similarity solution of the shallow water equations over variable topography, a wave disturbance determined by the topography, and a diurnal tidal disturbance. We use standard Lagrangian methods to assess the cross-shelf transport, presenting the results, however, in a Eulerian frame, so as to be amenable to oceanographic observations. The relative roles of the different flow components in cross-shelf transport are assessed through an extensive parameter study. We find that a superposition of all three flow components can indeed produce consequential background aperiodic transport. An application of the model using recent observations from the Texas Shelf demonstrates that a combination of these background mechanisms can produce significant transport under realistic conditions

Submesoscale Kinematic Properties in Summer and Winter Surface Flows in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Statistical properties of near-surface horizontal velocity gradients are obtained from four drifter experiments conducted in the Gulf of Mexico during Summer 2012 and Winter 2016. The data density provided by the near-simultaneous deployments of 90-326 surface drifters in each allows direct, drifter-based estimates of the scale dependence of velocity gradients at separation scales ranging from 200 m to 5 km. The robustness of these estimates, derived from uniquley sampled, nearly equilateral triplets, is confirmed by comparisons with estimates produced from larger drifter clusters, and with estimates based on concurrent Eulerian X-band radar observations. The winter launches were deployed above a ∼80 m deep mixed layer, one in a region with nearly homogeneous horizontal density structure, the other in a region of strong surface density gradients associated with filaments of fresh Mississippi River water. The summer launches occurred in a shallow (10m) mixed layer, one launched across a mesoscale frontal jet separating regions of horizontally homogeneous density and the other, similar to the corresponding winter launch, also in a region filamented by shallow lenses of cold, fresh water. Seasonal differences are observed, with larger velocity fluctuations and greater variance in divergence and vorticity, especially at the smallest scales, in winter. Differences between same-season launches are, however, as large as seasonal differences. In both seasons, observations sampling regions directly impacted by fresh water fluxes show strongly skewed vorticity distributions, with cyclonic vorticity dominating strain. For the other launches, one in each season, strain dominated minimally skewed vorticity

Ocean convergence and the dispersion of flotsam

Floating oil, plastics, and marine organisms are continually redistributed by ocean surface currents. Prediction of their resulting distribution on the surface is a fundamental, long-standing, and practically important problem. The dominant paradigm is dispersion within the dynamical context of a nondivergent flow: objects initially close together will on average spread apart but the area of surface patches of material does not change. Although this paradigm is likely valid at mesoscales, larger than 100 km in horizontal scale, recent theoretical studies of submesoscales (less than ∼10 km) predict strong surface convergences and downwelling associated with horizontal density fronts and cyclonic vortices. Here we show that such structures can dramatically concentrate floating material. More than half of an array of ∼200 surface drifters covering ∼20 × 20 km2 converged into a 60 × 60 m region within a week, a factor of more than 105 decrease in area, before slowly dispersing. As predicted, the convergence occurred at density fronts and with cyclonic vorticity. A zipperlike structure may play an important role. Cyclonic vorticity and vertical velocity reached 0.001 s−1 and 0.01 ms−1, respectively, which is much larger than usually inferred. This suggests a paradigm in which nearby objects form submesoscale clusters, and these clusters then spread apart. Together, these effects set both the overall extent and the finescale texture of a patch of floating material. Material concentrated at submesoscale convergences can create unique communities of organisms, amplify impacts of toxic material, and create opportunities to more efficiently recover such material

Ocean convergence and the dispersion of flotsam

Floating oil, plastics, and marine organisms are continually redistributed by ocean surface currents. Prediction of their resulting distribution on the surface is a fundamental, long-standing, and practically important problem. The dominant paradigm is dispersion within the dynamical context of a nondivergent flow: objects initially close together will on average spread apart but the area of surface patches of material does not change. Although this paradigm is likely valid at mesoscales, larger than 100 km in horizontal scale, recent theoretical studies of submesoscales (less than ∼10 km) predict strong surface convergences and downwelling associated with horizontal density fronts and cyclonic vortices. Here we show that such structures can dramatically concentrate floating material. More than half of an array of ∼200 surface drifters covering ∼20 × 20 km2 converged into a 60 × 60 m region within a week, a factor of more than 105 decrease in area, before slowly dispersing. As predicted, the convergence occurred at density fronts and with cyclonic vorticity. A zipperlike structure may play an important role. Cyclonic vorticity and vertical velocity reached 0.001 s−1 and 0.01 ms−1, respectively, which is much larger than usually inferred. This suggests a paradigm in which nearby objects form submesoscale clusters, and these clusters then spread apart. Together, these effects set both the overall extent and the finescale texture of a patch of floating material. Material concentrated at submesoscale convergences can create unique communities of organisms, amplify impacts of toxic material, and create opportunities to more efficiently recover such material

Surface Ocean Dispersion Observations From the Ship-Tethered Aerostat Remote Sensing System

Oil slicks and sheens reside at the air-sea interface, a region of the ocean that is notoriously difficult to measure. Little is known about the velocity field at the sea surface in general, making predictions of oil dispersal difficult. The Ship-Tethered Aerostat Remote Sensing System (STARSS) was developed to measure Lagrangian velocities at the air-sea interface by tracking the transport and dispersion of bamboo dinner plates in the field of view of a high-resolution aerial imaging system. The camera had a field of view of approximately 300 × 200 m and images were obtained every 15 s over periods of up to 3 h. A series of experiments were conducted in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January-February 2016. STARSS was equipped with a GPS and inertial navigation system (INS) that was used to directly georectify the aerial images. A relative rectification technique was developed that translates and rotates the plates to minimize their total movement from one frame to the next. Rectified plate positions were used to quantify scale-dependent dispersion by computing relative dispersion, relative diffusivity, and velocity structure functions. STARSS was part of a nested observational framework, which included deployments of large numbers of GPS-tracked surface drifters from two ships, in situ ocean measurements, X-band radar observations of surface currents, and synoptic maps of sea surface temperature from a manned aircraft. Here we describe the STARSS system and image analysis techniques, and present results from an experiment that was conducted on a density front that was approximately 130 km offshore. These observations are the first of their kind and the methodology presented here can be adopted into existing and planned oceanographic campaigns to improve our understanding of small-scale and high-frequency variability at the air-sea interface and to provide much-needed benchmarks for numerical simulations

CALYPSO 2019 Cruise Report: field campaign in the Mediterranean

This cruise aimed to identify transport pathways from the surface into the interior ocean during the late winter in the Alborán sea between the Strait of Gibraltar (5°40’W) and the prime meridian. Theory and previous observations indicated that these pathways likely originated at strong fronts, such as the one that separates salty Mediterranean water and the fresher water in owing from the Atlantic. Our goal was to map such pathways and quantify their transport. Since the outcropping isopycnals at the front extend to the deepest depths during the late winter, we planned the cruise at the end of the Spring, prior to the onset of thermal stratification of the surface mixed layer.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N000141613130