Topic Area
California Current System (CCS) Filaments/Eddies
Project Team Member:
LT Lora Egley, USNR
Major Findings
The California current is an eastern boundary current. It's broad, slow, cool, and shallow. There has been a large amount of effort to describe the mesoscale circulation of the California current which varies significantly in time and space. Specifically, the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) was involved in resolving eddie features through moored and shipboard measurements. This experiment described and compared mesoscale variability from moored observations off the coast of Point Arena, California.
Particularly, the Chereskin et.al. (2000) paper demonstrated the spatial mode of variability through Empirical orthogonal function analysis. The passage of eddies were evident on the objectively mapped temperature and currents. Additionally, these mesoscale events were correlated with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images. Thin filaments of cold water were apparent on the image. Summer is the strong upwelling season for the California Current, which is associated with well developed offshore squirts of cold water. The results of the study showed for the offshore mooring site a peak in eddy kinetic energy (EKE) at 120 to 180 days and the inshore site the EKE was 60 days.
References
Chereskin, T.K., M.Y. Morris, P.P. Niiler, R.L. Smith, S.R. Ramp, C.A.Collins, and D.L. Musgrave, 2000: Spatial and temporal characteristics of the mesoscale circulation of the California Current from eddy-resolving moored and shipboard measurements, J. Phys. Res., Vol. 105, 1245-1269.
Kelly, K.A., R.C. Beardsley, R. Limeburner, K.H. Brink, J.D. Paduan, and T.K. Chereskin, 1998: Variability of the near-surface eddy kinetic energy in the California Current based on altimetric, drifter and moored current data, J. Phys. Res., Vol. 103, 13,067-13084.
http://ono/uscs.edu/pages/pubs/eos_miller.et.al._1999/CCS_final.text.html
http://tryfan.uscd.edu/ebc/ebc.htm
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