Spatial and time distribution of the strong current events

Layer 10 Layer 12 Layer 13

The three plots show the distribution of strong current events in longitude (x axis) and time (y axis) space. The plots, from left to right, show the distribution in model's layer 10 (500-600m), 12 (800-1300m) and 13 (1300-1600) respectively. The maximum amplitude is above half a knots. The diagram in layer 13 shows a slight amplification of the current signal in comparison to layer 12. The solid lines mark the ejection event. The dashed line the end of a cycle and the dotted line mark the reattachement events. Unfortunately, during the file (eps to gif) converstion process some lines were missed.

Layer 10 Layer 13

Those two plots show the distribution of the latitude of the strong current events with time for model's layers 10 and 13. Due to the bottom slope the strong current events occur more to the south in deep water.

Current vector plots during the events at the surface and in layer 13

Each of the plot pair correspond to a current event on the time axis. t= 571 and 607 are events that occur during the second cycle (see figures above). Then events for t= 1366 and 1460 occur during the third cycle while the other events shown occur during the forth cycle (t > 1500). The lack of strong event during most of the third cycle is due to the south-westward motion of the Loop Current ring during the second cycle (not shown). The conclusion from these results is that most of the strong current events result of the interaction of the Loop Current (LC) ring with the bottom slope when it propagates towards the western Gulf. On the north-west end of the Gulf, the northward boundary current observed in the model is intensified locally by the LC rings when they hit the coast. The remaining rings seem to decay slowly in this area, feeding the western boundary current. The intensification in the deep layer is very similar to Hamilton (1990) observations as well as the order of magnitude of the velocities.