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Hydrographic observations and mixing processes in the New York Bight, 1975–1977
Author(s) -
Han Gregory,
Niedrauer Terren
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1981.26.6.1126
Subject(s) - hydrography , oceanography , thermocline , advection , temperature salinity diagrams , submarine pipeline , bathythermograph , salinity , mixed layer , environmental science , current (fluid) , geology , water column , water mass , climatology , physics , thermodynamics
A series of 15 hydrographic cruises in the New York Bight over 1975–1977 is described and analyzed. The cruises cover all seasons but focus primarily on spring and summer. Temperature and salinity data show wide seasonal and interannual variability. Each of the three regions—inner bight, midshelf, and outer shelf slope—has distinctive properties and dynamics. The inner bight properties are affected primarily by river flow and wind‐driven flows up the shelf valley which often splits the freshwater surface layer into two plumes, one east and one west of the valley head. The “cold pool” temperature structure on the midshelf is different each year. The water with the lowest recorded temperature (2.58°C) was on the bottom after the thermocline formation in May 1977. Mixing models of the inner bight confirmed previous estimates of residence time as 6.8 days and yielded K r = 5 × 10 6 cm 2 ·s −1 with an advective transport component of 1 cm·s −1 to the southwest. A model of the mixing of the lower layer cold pool on the midshelf with onshore, offshore, and upper layer waters yields K x = 7 × 10 6 and K z = 0.1 cm 2 ·s −1 as the on‐offshore horizontal and vertical diffusion coefficients.