A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System PDF Author: James R. Vann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A high-resolution multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottom, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to climatological average (1980-1989), individual year, and multiple year wind forcing. The focus of this study is the California Current System along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 47.5 deg N, off the West Coast of North America. Two types of experiments are conducted. The first type forces the model from rest with climatological, 1981, and 1983 monthly winds to examine the generation phase of features such as currents, upwelling, meanders, eddies, and filaments. The second type continues the forcing from the previous years to examine the maintenance of these features. In the first type of experiments, the following features are observed: a poleward coastal surface current near the start and end of each year, and equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, and eddies. In the second type of experiments, meanders and eddies were already present at the start of the experiment. In addition to the features observed during the first type of experiment, filaments are generated. The results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for the generation of many of the observed features in the California Current System.

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System PDF Author: James R. Vann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A high-resolution multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottom, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to climatological average (1980-1989), individual year, and multiple year wind forcing. The focus of this study is the California Current System along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 47.5 deg N, off the West Coast of North America. Two types of experiments are conducted. The first type forces the model from rest with climatological, 1981, and 1983 monthly winds to examine the generation phase of features such as currents, upwelling, meanders, eddies, and filaments. The second type continues the forcing from the previous years to examine the maintenance of these features. In the first type of experiments, the following features are observed: a poleward coastal surface current near the start and end of each year, and equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, and eddies. In the second type of experiments, meanders and eddies were already present at the start of the experiment. In addition to the features observed during the first type of experiment, filaments are generated. The results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for the generation of many of the observed features in the California Current System.

NPS-OC-94-006

NPS-OC-94-006 PDF Author: James R. Vann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
A high-resolution multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottom, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to climatological average (1980-1989), individual year, and multiple year wind forcing. The focus of this study is the California Current System along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 47.5 deg N, off the West Coast of North America. Two types of experiments are conducted. The first type forces the model from rest with climatological, 1981, and 1983 monthly winds to examine the generation phase of features such as currents, upwelling, meanders, eddies, and filaments. The second type continues the forcing from the previous years to examine the maintenance of these features. In the first type of experiments, the following features are observed: a poleward coastal surface current near the start and end of each year, and equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, and eddies. In the second type of experiments, meanders and eddies were already present at the start of the experiment. In addition to the features observed during the first type of experiment, filaments are generated. The results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for the generation of many of the observed features in the California Current System.

A Numerical Study of Seasonal Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System

A Numerical Study of Seasonal Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System PDF Author: Ross P. Mitchell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : California Current
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
A high-resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottomed, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to both steady and seasonally-varying climatological wind forcing. The focus of the study is the California Current System along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 45 deg N, off the Western United States. With steady equatorward wind forcing, a surface equatorward current and poleward undercurrent develop. Eddies form around days 60 and 7 with initial development in the northern region of the domain. The strong meandering current continues to grow throughout the 360 days of model time and can produce eddies that have wavelengths up to 200 km and can propagate at least -200 km offshore. When the alongshore component of the temporally averaged seasonally varying climatological wind forcing is used, there is a weak poleward undercurrent and equatorward surface current. There is weak upwelling and very little eddy activity with the eddies only propagating to -100 km offshore. When alongshore component of the time-dependent wind forcing with spatial variability in latitude is used, a surface equatorward jet, poleward undercurrent and eddies are generated. The eddies form throughout the domain in this experiment due to a competition between the 0-plan effect and the continuous and stronger equatorward wind forcing in the southern portion of the domain. The eddies in this experiment propagate at least -150 km from shore.

Numerical Study of Interannual Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System, 1980-1983

Numerical Study of Interannual Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System, 1980-1983 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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A Numerical Study of Interannual Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System, 1980-1983

A Numerical Study of Interannual Wind Forcing Effects on the California Current System, 1980-1983 PDF Author: Robert T. Haines
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
A high resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of an idealized, flat-bottomed, eastern boundary oceanic regime on a beta-plane to climatological average (1980-1989) and individual yearly (1980-1983) wind forcing. The focus of this study is the California Current System (CCS) along the coastal region, from 35 deg N to 47.5 deg N, of the Western United States. Five experiments were initialized from a state of rest and two from the fields remaining at day 360 from the climatological average wind forcing. With the climatological average wind forcing, a surface equatorward jet and poleward undercurrent are generated. Eddies form along the entire eastern boundary and a field of cyclonic eddies approximately 200 km in diameter remain at day 360. Results for the non-El Nino (1980-1981) years are very similar to the results for the climatological average wind forcing. Early in the year, the El Nino wind fields for 1983 are more intense than the average and 1980-1982 winds, and they have a much stronger poleward component. A surface poleward current develops over an equatorward undercurrent.

NPS-OC-91-001

NPS-OC-91-001 PDF Author: Jeffrey L. Bacon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 67

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Book Description


NPS-OC-94-007

NPS-OC-94-007 PDF Author: Chih-Ping Hu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
A high-resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of the coastal region from 22.50 degree south to 350 degree south of the Chile Current System to both equatorward and climatological wind forcing. The results from both types of forcing show that an equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, filaments and eddies develop in response to the predominant equatorward wind forcing. When climatological wind forcing is used, an offshore branch of the equatorward surface current is also generated. These features are consistent with available observations of the Chile Current System. The model results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for generating currents, eddies and filaments in the Chile eastern boundary current system and in other eastern boundary current regions which have predominantly equatorward wind forcing.

A Numerical Study of the Effects of Wind Forcing on the Chile Current System

A Numerical Study of the Effects of Wind Forcing on the Chile Current System PDF Author: Chih-Ping Hu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A high-resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response of the coastal region from 22.50 degree south to 350 degree south of the Chile Current System to both equatorward and climatological wind forcing. The results from both types of forcing show that an equatorward surface current, a poleward undercurrent, upwelling, meanders, filaments and eddies develop in response to the predominant equatorward wind forcing. When climatological wind forcing is used, an offshore branch of the equatorward surface current is also generated. These features are consistent with available observations of the Chile Current System. The model results support the hypothesis that wind forcing is an important mechanism for generating currents, eddies and filaments in the Chile eastern boundary current system and in other eastern boundary current regions which have predominantly equatorward wind forcing.

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing in the Eastern Boundary Current System Off Portugal

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing in the Eastern Boundary Current System Off Portugal PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A high resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response to wind forcing of an idealized, flat-bottomed oceanic regime on a beta-plane, along the eastern ocean boundary off the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Three experiments are conducted to investigate the role of different types of prescribed wind forcing. In experiment 1, a band equatorward winds which are uniform alongshore but contain zonal variability (i.e., large negative wind stress curl near the coast), results in an equatorward coastal surface current nearshore and a poleward surface current offshore. With time, the currents become unstable and anticyclonic warm core eddies develop in the region of negative wind stress curl. In experiment 2, the model is forced with poleward wind stress for 20 days followed by a sudden change to equatorward wind stress. A 1-2 day transition from downwelling and a poleward surface current near the coast to upwelling and an equatorward surface jet occurs. With the time the upwelled isotherms are displaced offshore, the equatorward surface jet widens and gets shallower nearshore, and the poleward undercurrent moves closer to the surface (depth approx. = 120 m at the coast). For experiment 3, a time series of 6-hourly values of the north/south component of the wind, computed from Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center synoptic surface pressure analyses are used to investigate the response of the coastal current system to time dependent wind forcing. Keywords: Theses. (kr).

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing in the Eastern Boundary Current System Off Portugal

A Numerical Study of Wind Forcing in the Eastern Boundary Current System Off Portugal PDF Author: Carlos N. Lopes Da Costa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ocean currents
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
A high resolution, multi-level, primitive equation ocean model is used to examine the response to wind forcing of an idealized, flat-bottomed oceanic regime on a beta-plane, along the eastern ocean boundary off the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Three experiments are conducted to investigate the role of different types of prescribed wind forcing. In experiment 1, a band equatorward winds which are uniform alongshore but contain zonal variability (i.e., large negative wind stress curl near the coast), results in an equatorward coastal surface current nearshore and a poleward surface current offshore. With time, the currents become unstable and anticyclonic warm core eddies develop in the region of negative wind stress curl. In experiment 2, the model is forced with poleward wind stress for 20 days followed by a sudden change to equatorward wind stress. A 1-2 day transition from downwelling and a poleward surface current near the coast to upwelling and an equatorward surface jet occurs. With the time the upwelled isotherms are displaced offshore, the equatorward surface jet widens and gets shallower nearshore, and the poleward undercurrent moves closer to the surface (depth approx. = 120 m at the coast). For experiment 3, a time series of 6-hourly values of the north/south component of the wind, computed from Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center synoptic surface pressure analyses are used to investigate the response of the coastal current system to time dependent wind forcing. Keywords: Theses. (kr).