scholarly journals Referencing geostrophic velocities using ADCP data Referencing geostrophic velocities using ADCP data

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isis Comas-Rodríguez ◽  
Alonso Hernández-Guerra ◽  
Elaine L. McDonagh
2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey E. Seim ◽  
Catherine R. Edwards

Abstract Simultaneous ADCP profile measurements are compared over a 2-month period in late 2003. One set of measurements comes from a National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy-mounted ADCP, the other from a bottom-mounted, upward-looking ADCP moored roughly 500 m from the buoy. The study was undertaken to evaluate the proficiency of an experimental configuration by NDBC; unfortunately, the ADCP was not optimally configured. The higher temporally and vertically resolved bottom-mounted ADCP data are interpolated in time and depth to match the buoy-mounted ADCP measurements. It is found that the two ADCP measurements are significantly different. The buoy-mounted measurements are affected by high-frequency (<10 h period) noise that is vertically coherent throughout the profiles. This noise results in autospectra that are essentially white, unlike the classic red spectra formed from the bottom-mounted ADCP observations. The spectra imply a practical noise floor of 0.045 m s−1 for the buoy-mounted system. Contamination by surface waves is the likely cause of this problem. At tidal frequencies the buoy-mounted system underestimates major axis tidal current magnitude by 10%–40%; interference from the buoy chain and/or fish or plankton are considered the most likely cause of the bias. The subtidal velocity field (periods greater than 40 h) is only partially captured; the correlation coefficient for the east–west current is 0.49 and for the north–south current is 0.64.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 1149-1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy L. Sheen ◽  
Nicky White ◽  
C. P. Caulfield ◽  
Richard W. Hobbs

Abstract It is shown that geostrophic vertical shear estimates can be recovered from seismic (i.e., acoustic) images of thermohaline structure. In the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current forms a loop within the Falkland Trough before it flows northward into the Argentine Basin. Seismic profiles that cross this loop show the detailed structure of different water masses with a horizontal resolution of O(10 m). Coherent seismic reflections are tilted in response to current flow around the Falkland Trough. Average slopes were measured on length scales that are large enough to ensure that the geostrophic approximation is valid (i.e., with a Rossby number <0.1). By combining shear estimates with satellite altimetric measurements and acoustic Doppler current profiles, geostrophic velocities can be calculated throughout the data volume. This technique for estimating geostrophic vertical shear from legacy seismic images yields useful information about the spatial and temporal variation of mesoscale circulation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsuhiko Isobe ◽  
Takahiro Kuramitsu ◽  
Hirotaka Nozaki ◽  
Pil-Hun Chang

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 721-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Y. Erofeeva ◽  
Laurie Padman ◽  
Gary Egbert

Abstract The application of a generalized inverse approach for assimilating vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (VM-ADCP) data into numerical solutions of barotropic tides is described. The derived estimates of tidal currents can be used to detide the VM-ADCP data and expose underlying mean circulation. The methodology is illustrated with data assimilation models of tidal currents in the Ross Sea. The prior solution, obtained by solving the nonlinear shallow-water equations by time stepping with a linear bottom friction parameterization and elevation of open boundary conditions obtained from a circum-Antarctic tide model, provides reasonably good fit to most available moored current meter data. Two inverse solutions were obtained: one assimilating moored current meter records and the other assimilating three cruises of VM-ADCP data. Fitting either the mooring time series or the VM-ADCP records leads to only small changes relative to the prior solution currents, except over the shelf break where short length scale, energetic diurnal topographic vorticity waves are present. It is shown that the dynamics embedded in the representer functions provides reasonable tidal corrections even with no prior information about forcing at open boundaries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 2735-2758
Author(s):  
Tiago Carrilho Biló ◽  
William E. Johns

AbstractThe mean North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW, 1000 < z < 5000 m) circulation and deep western boundary current (DWBC) variability offshore of Abaco, Bahamas, at 26.5°N are investigated from nearly two decades of velocity and hydrographic observations, and outputs from a 30-yr-long eddy-resolving global simulation. Observations at 26.5°N and Argo-derived geostrophic velocities show the presence of a mean Abaco Gyre spanning the NADW layer, consisting of a closed cyclonic circulation between approximately 24° and 30°N and 72° and 77°W. The southward-flowing portion of this gyre (the DWBC) is constrained to within ~150 km of the western boundary with a mean transport of ~30 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1). Offshore of the DWBC, the data show a consistent northward recirculation with net transports varying from 6.5 to 16 Sv. Current meter records spanning 2008–17 supported by the numerical simulation indicate that the DWBC transport variability is dominated by two distinct types of fluctuations: 1) periods of 250–280 days that occur regularly throughout the time series and 2) energetic oscillations with periods between 400 and 700 days that occur sporadically every 5–6 years and force the DWBC to meander far offshore for several months. The shorter-period variations are related to DWBC meandering caused by eddies propagating southward along the continental slope at 24°–30°N, while the longer-period oscillations appear to be related to large anticyclonic eddies that slowly propagate northwestward counter to the DWBC flow between ~20° and 26.5°N. Observational and theoretical evidence suggest that these two types of variability might be generated, respectively, by DWBC instability processes and Rossby waves reflecting from the western boundary.


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