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2002 LAPCOD Meeting
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Chlorophyll dispersal by eddy-eddy interactions in the Gulf of Mexico
M. Toner, A. D. Kirwan Jr., A.C. Poje, L. H. Kantha, F. E. Muller-Karger, C. K. R. T. Jones
University of Delaware
toner@udel.edu(Abstract received 09/25/2002 for session B)
ABSTRACT
A Lagrangian analysis of the transport and dispersal patterns indicated by chlorophyll plumes observed in satellite-derived ocean color images was conducted in the context of a data-assimilating model of the Gulf of Mexico. The interaction between cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, which are pervasive in the Gulf, played an important role in the transport of chlorophyll-rich shelf water into open waters. In some cases such transport extended across wide areas of the Gulf and delivered biological material to other shelf regions. Such shelf-to-shelf transport was clear between the Yucatan and South Florida shelf, where material was transported in a thin strip along the north wall of the Loop Current after an eddy-shedding event. Another event associated with a cyclone/anticyclone pair at the Louisiana shelf break transported material between the Louisiana Shelf and the northern Yucatan Peninsula. Advective pathways developed from the model align remarkably well with the observed chlorophyll plumes indicating the importance of advective transport by coherent features in shaping plume formation and evolution.
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2002 LAPCOD Meeting, Key Largo, Florida, December 12-16, 2000