Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T02:44:01.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Will Deep Subtropical Ring ‘Storm Physallv’ Cross the Mid Atlantic Ridgea and Reach America?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R.D. Pingree ,
B. Sinha ,
A.L. New ,
I. Waddington ,
R.N. Head  and
L.V. Nechvolodov
R.D. Pingree
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB.
B. Sinha
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB.
A.L. New
Affiliation:
Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock (Dock Gate 4), European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH.
I. Waddington
Affiliation:
Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock (Dock Gate 4), European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH.
R.N. Head
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB.
L.V. Nechvolodov
Affiliation:
State Oceanographic Institute, Kropotkinsky per. 6, 119838 Moscow, Russia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A short research cruise was planned to trace the movement of a discrete body of water in the subtropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean. A subtropical ring or deep eddy called STORM was found budding off the Subtropical Front (STF) south-west of the Azores. A physical, chemical and biological survey to depths of 3·5 km was made of this 400 km scale body of water which was spinning cyclonically (anticlockwise). The azimuthal transport or the amount of water swirling in the eddy was 45 Sv. Storm was ‘hooked’ with ten drogued Argos buoys and a further five subsurface Alace floats were deployed. Storm is moving westward at ~3 km a day and is expected to reach the Mid Atlantic Ridge in rather less than a year unless it is destroyed by typography or reabsorbed into the Azores Current. With current technology, Storm's evolution and westward progress can be observed and analysed remotely, at a distance of ~3000 km in the laboratory. Realtime position data means that future sea surveys can be planned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , August 1996 , pp. 553 - 567
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angel, M.V. & Fasham, M.J.R., 1983. Eddies and biological processes. In Eddies in marine science (ed. A.R., Robinson), pp. 493–524. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Armi, L., Hebert, D., Oakey, N., Price, J., Richardson, P., Rossby, T. & Ruddick, B., 1989. Two years in the life of a Mediterranean salt lens, journal of Physical Oceanography, 19, 354–370.Google Scholar
Armi, L. & Stommel, H., 1983. Four views of a portion of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. journal of Physical Oceanography, 13, 828–857.Google Scholar
Bowman, M.J., 1985. On the (3-induced coastal trapping of a baroclinic eddy, journal of Physical Oceanography, 15, 817–822.Google Scholar
Cushman-Roisin, B., Chassignet, E.P. & Tang, B., 1990. Westward motion of mesoscale eddies. journal of Physical Oceanography, 20, 758–768.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, R.E., Webb, D.C., Regier, L.A. & Dufour, J., 1992. The Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE). journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 9, 264–285.Google Scholar
Flierl, G.R., 1981. Particle motion in large-amplitude wave fields. Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, 18, 39–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, W.J., 1985. Physical oceanography of the Azores front. Progress in Oceanography, 14, 167–190.Google Scholar
Isemer, H.-J. & Hasse, L., 1985. The Bunker climate atlas of the North Atlantic Ocean, vol. 1. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Isemer, H.-J. & Hasse, L., 1987. The Bunker climate atlas of the North Atlantic Ocean. Vol. 2. Air-sea interactions. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Kerr, R.A., 1981. Small eddies proliferating in the Atlantic. Science, New York, 213, 632–634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kida, S., 1981. Motion of an elliptic vortex in a uniform shear flow, journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 50, 3517–3520.Google Scholar
Klein, B. & Siedler, G., 1989. On the origin of the Azores Current. Journal of Geophysical Research, 94, 6159–6168.Google Scholar
Lamb, H., 1975. Hydrodynamics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levitus, S., 1982. Climatological atlas of the world ocean. Rockville, Maryland: US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [NOAA Professional Paper no. 13.]Google Scholar
McCartney, M.S., Worthington, L.V. & Schmitz, W.J. Jr., 1978. Large cyclonic rings from the northeast Sargasso Sea. journal of Geophysical Research, 83, 901–914.Google Scholar
McDowell, S.E. & Rossby, H.T., 1978. Mediterranean water: an intense mesoscale eddy off the Bahamas. Science, New York, 202, 1085–1087.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayanan, S. & Lilly, G.R., 1993. On the accuracy of XBT temperature profiles. Deep-Sea Research, 40, 2105–2113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niiler, P.P., 1992. The ocean circulation. In Climate system modelling (ed. K.E., Trenberth), pp. 117–148. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nof, D., 1981. On the B-induced movement of isolated baroclinic eddies. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 11, 1662–1672.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D., 1993. Flow of surface waters to the west of the British Isles and in the Bay of Biscay. Deep-Sea Research II, 40, 369–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D., 1994. Winter warming in the southern Bay of Biscay and Lagrangian eddy kinematics from a deep-drogued Argos buoy. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 74, 107–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D., 1995. The droguing of Meddy Pinball and seeding with Alace floats. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 75, 235–252.Google Scholar
Pingree, R.D., 1996. A shallow subtropical subducting westward propagating eddy (SWESTY). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 354, 979–1026.Google Scholar
Pingree, R.D., 1997. Circulation, structure and subduction in the eastern Subtropical Gyre of the N. Atlantic from drogued buoys and hydrography. Deep-Sea Research, in press.Google Scholar
Pingree, R.D. & Le Cann, B., 1991. Drifting buoy in the field of flow of two eddies on East Thulean Rise (north-east Atlantic). Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 16759–16777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. & Le Cann, B., 1992 a. Anticyclonic eddy X91 in the southern Bay of Biscay, May 1991 to February 1992. Journal of Geophysical Research, 97, 14353–14367.Google Scholar
Pingree, R.D. & Le Cann, B., 1992 b. Three anticyclonic Slope Water Oceanic eDDIES (SWODDIES) in the southern Bay of Biscay in 1990. Deep-Sea Research, 39, 1147–1175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R.D. & Le Cann, B., 1993. Structure of a meddy (Bobby 92) south-east of the Azores. Deep-Sea Research, 40, 2077–2103.Google Scholar
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 1992. RRS ‘Charles Darwin’ Cruise 66/92 Report, 4 March - 6 April, 85 pp. Plymouth Marine Laboratory.Google Scholar
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 1995. RRS ‘Charles Darwin’ Cruise 97/95 Report, 12 October- 6 November, 84 pp. Plymouth Marine Laboratory.Google Scholar
Raymont, J.E.G., 1963. Plankton and productivity in the oceans. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, P.L., Walsh, D., Armi, L., Schroder, M. & Price, J.F., 1989. Tracking three meddies with SOFAR floats. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 19, 371–383.Google Scholar
Group, Ring, 1981. Gulf Stream cold-core rings: their physics, chemistry and biology. Science, New York, 212, 1091–1100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, G.I., Meschanov, S.L. & Emelianov, M.V., 1995. Mediterranean lens ‘Irving’ after its collision with seamounts. Oceanologica Acta, 18, 309–318.Google Scholar
Stammer, D., Hinrichsen, H. & Kase, R.H., 1991. Can meddies be detected by satellite altimetry? Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 7005–7014.Google Scholar
Stommel, H., 1958. The Gulf Stream. A physical and dynamical description. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rings, Warm-Core, 1992. Deep-Sea Research, vol. 39. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar