Premium
Subinertial response of the Gulf Stream System to Hurricane Fran of 1996
Author(s) -
Xie Lian,
Pietrafesa Leonard J.,
Zhang Chen
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl002359
Subject(s) - baroclinity , trough (economics) , geology , storm , gulf stream , climatology , internal wave , meteorology , oceanography , physics , economics , macroeconomics
The evidence of subinertial‐frequency (with periods from 2 days to 2 weeks) oceanic response to Hurricane Fran of 1996 is documented. Hurricane Fran traveled northward across the Gulf Stream and then over a cool‐core trough, known as the Charleston Trough, due east of Charleston, SC and in the lee of the Charleston Bump during the period 4–5 September, 1996. During the passage of the storm, the trough closed into a gyre to form an intense cool‐core cyclonic eddy. This cool‐core eddy had an initial size of approximately 130 km by 170 km and drifted northeastward along the Gulf Stream front at a speed of 13 to 15 km/day as a subinertial baroclinic wave. Superimposed on this subinertial‐frequency wave were near‐inertial frequency, internal inertia‐gravity waves formed in the stratified mixed‐layer base after the passage of the storm. The results from a three‐dimensional numerical ocean model confirm the existence of both near‐inertial and subinertial‐frequency waves in the Gulf Stream system during and after the passage of Hurricane Fran. Model results also showed that hurricane‐forced oceanic response can modify Gulf Stream variability at both near‐inertial and subinertial frequencies.