Abstract
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 107,
3233,
7 PP., 2002
doi:10.1029/2001JC001256
Deep flows in the Yucatan Channel and their relation to changes in the Loop Current extension
Deep flows in the Yucatan Channel and their relation to changes in the Loop Current extension
L. Bunge
Oceanografía Física,
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada,
Ensenada,
Mexico
J. Ochoa
Oceanografía Física,
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada,
Ensenada,
Mexico
A. Badan
Oceanografía Física,
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada,
Ensenada,
Mexico
J. Candela
Oceanografía Física,
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada,
Ensenada,
Mexico
J. Sheinbaum
Oceanografía Física,
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada,
Ensenada,
Mexico
The first attempt to establish a relation between the Loop Current extension and deep flows in Yucatan Channel was made by
Maul et al. [1985]
; it was unsuccessful, probably because of the low spatial resolution of their observations. From September 8, 1999, to June
17, 2000, eight moorings with acoustic Doppler current profilers, current meters, and thermometers were deployed across the
Yucatan Channel. The data from these arrays were used to compute time series of the transports below the level of the deepest
isotherm observed in the Florida Straits, as required by a simple box model that restricts deep exchanges with the Gulf of
Mexico to the Yucatan Channel. The surface extension of the Loop Current was inferred from 3 day advanced very high resolution
radiometer imagery from October to May, when temperature gradients were sufficient to map the warm water unambiguously. The
deep transports appear at first unrelated to the rate of change of the Loop Current extension, but filtering the series with
a 20 day running mean increases the correlation between the low-pass series to 0.62, and up to 0.83 with a lag of 8.5 days,
with Loop Current changes leading the deep flows. The cumulative deep transport, a quantity that favors lower frequencies,
is very well related (correlations >0.9) to the surface extension of the Loop Current, also with a lag of about a week. These
lags are not statistically significant but suggest a timescale for internal adjustment processes in the Gulf of Mexico. The
empirical orthogonal function of the current best related to the area extension of the Loop Current represents a unidirectional
flow across the entire deep section, flowing either toward or from the Gulf of Mexico, and includes a strong expression of
the Yucatan Undercurrent.
Published 26
December
2002.
Citation: Bunge, L., J. Ochoa, A. Badan, J. Candela, and J. Sheinbaum
(2002),
Deep flows in the Yucatan Channel and their relation to changes in the Loop Current extension,
J. Geophys. Res.,
107(C12),
3233,
doi:10.1029/2001JC001256.