Posted by Watts on March 31, 2000 at 12:38:20:
Question for poster visitors after visiting the site:
Was it made clear enough to you that the color-coded
cyclones and anticyclones (which we measured at 3500 dbar)
are REALLY nearly depth-independent?
i.e. they exert important
influence up thru the thermocline to the sea surface
(thus driving important cross-frontal exchange, which is
the topic of the Lindstrom papers (see Bibliog).
There are two good ways to appreciate the barotropic
(nearly depth-independent) nature
of these "storms":
(1) the Savidge and Bane citations study this issue;
(2) the upper Gulf Stream shear adds to but does not
erase these deep ('reference') velocities, which therefore
extend up through the whole water column. Summed together,
the current turns with height, as is also observed in the
atmospheric jet stream. Meteorologists call this turning
"backing" or "veering".