Open AccessLoop Current Frontal Eddies: Formation along the Campeche Bank and Impact of Coastally Trapped Waves
Author(s) -
Julien Jouanno,
José Ochoa,
Enric PallàsSanz,
Julio Sheinbaum,
F. AndradeCanto,
Julio Candela,
JeanMarc Molines
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of physical oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1520-0485
pISSN - 0022-3670
DOI - 10.1175/jpo-d-16-0052.1
Subject(s) - baroclinity , eddy , geology , barotropic fluid , potential vorticity , current (fluid) , climatology , vorticity , rossby wave , mooring , front (military) , oceanography , geophysics , turbulence , vortex , physics , meteorology
Velocity data from a mooring array deployed northeast of the Campeche Bank (CB) show the presence of subinertial, high-frequency (below 15 days) velocity fluctuations within the core of the northward flowing Loop Current. These fluctuations are associated with the presence of surface-intensified Loop Current frontal eddies (LCFEs), with cyclonic vorticity and diameter 30 days) that have been linked to Caribbean eddies and the LC separation process. Model results show that wind variability associated with winter cold surges are responsible for the emergence of high-frequency LCFEs in a narrow band of periods (6–10 day) in the region of the CB. The dynamical link between the formation of these LCFEs and the wind variability is not direct: (i) the large-scale wind perturbations generate sea level anomalies on the CB as well as first baroclinic mode, coastally trapped waves in the western Gulf of Mexico; (ii) these waves propagate cyclonically along the coast; and (iii) the interaction of these anomalies with the Loop Current triggers cyclonic vorticity perturbations that grow in intensity as they propagate downstream and develop into cyclonic eddies when they flow north of the Yucatan shelf.