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1.
Recent observations over the Sigsbee Escarpment in the Gulf of Mexico have revealed extremely energetic deep currents (near 1 m s−1), which are trapped along the escarpment. Both scientific interest and engineering needs demand dynamical understanding of these extreme events, and can benefit from a numerical model designed to complement observational and theoretical investigations in this region of complicated topography. The primary objective of this study is to develop a modeling methodology capable of simulating these physical processes and apply the model to the Sigsbee Escarpment region. The very steep slope of the Sigsbee Escarpment (0.05–0.1) limits the application of ocean models with traditional terrain-following (sigma) vertical coordinates, which may represent the very complicated topography in the region adequately, can result in large truncation errors during calculation of the horizontal pressure gradient. A new vertical coordinate system, termed a vanishing quasi-sigma coordinate, is implemented in the Navy Coastal Ocean Model for application to the Sigsbee Escarpment region. Vertical coordinate surfaces for this grid have noticeably gentler slopes than a traditional sigma grid, while still following the terrain near the ocean bottom. The new vertical grid is tested with a suite of numerical experiments and compared to a classical sigma-layer model. The numerical error is substantially reduced in the model with the new vertical grid. A one-year, realistic, numerical simulation is performed to simulate strong, deep currents over the Escarpment using a very-high-resolution nested modeling approach. The model results are analyzed to demonstrate that the deep-ocean currents in the simulation replicate the prominent dynamical features of the observed intense currents in the region.  相似文献   

2.
Bathymetric charts of the continental slope of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico reveal the presence of over 90 intraslope basins with relief in excess of 150 m. The evolution and the general configuration of the basins are a function of halokinesis of allochthonous salt. Intraslope-interlobal and intraslope-superlobal basins occupy the upper and lower continental slope, respectively. Other structures on the slope associated with salt tectonics are the Sigsbee Escarpment, the seaward edge of the Sigsbee salt nappe, and the Alaminos and Keathley canyons. Major erosional features are the Mississippi Canyon and portions of a submarine canyon on the southern extreme of the Sigsbee Escarpment.  相似文献   

3.
黑潮延伸体邻近区域中尺度涡特征统计分析   总被引：7，自引：3，他引：4  
本文利用20年的卫星高度计资料,对黑潮延伸体邻近海区(25°—45°N,135°E—175°W)中尺度涡的统计特征以及季节变化进行了统计研究。基于涡旋自动识别方法,共识别出本区域3006个气旋涡轨迹和2887个反气旋涡轨迹,其平均周期分别为9.99周和11.00周,平均半径分别为69.5km和71.8km。长生命周期涡旋的平均半径、涡度、涡动能(EKE)和涡旋能量密度(EI)在生命周期内大致都经历了增大-基本保持不变-减小这三个阶段。绝大多数涡旋沿纬线向西移动,经向移动距离较小,气旋涡和反气旋涡在西向传播过程中都具有明显的向南(赤道)偏离趋势。涡旋的生成数量与总数量均在春夏季达到最多,且这一时期涡旋的平均涡度、EKE、EI处于较高水平。  相似文献   

4.
The continental slope in the northern South China Sea(SCS) is rich in mesoscale eddies which play an important role in transport and retention of nutrients and biota. In this study, we investigate the statistical properties of eddy distributions and propagation in a period of 24 years between 1993 and 2016 by using the altimeter data. A total of 147 eddies are found in the continental slope region(CSR), including 70 cyclonic eddies(CEs) and 77 anticyclonic eddies(ACEs). For those eddies that appear in the CSR, the surrounding areas of Dongsha Islands(DS) and southwest of Taiwan(SWT) are considered as the primary sources, where eddies generated contribute more than 60% of the total. According to the spatial distribution of eddy relative vorticity, eddies are weakening as propagating westward. Although both CEs and ACEs roughly propagate along the slope isobaths, there are discrepancies between CEs and ACEs. The ACEs move slightly faster in the zonal direction, while the CEs tend to cross the isobaths with large bottom depth change. The ACEs generally move further into the basin areas after leaving the CSR while CEs remain around the CSR. The eddy propagation on the continental slope is likely to be associated with mean flow at a certain degree because the eddy trajectories have notable seasonal signals that are consistent with the seasonal cycle of geostrophic current. The results indicate that the eddy translation speed is statistically consistent with geostrophic velocity in both magnitude and direction.  相似文献   

5.
Mesoscale eddies dominate surface phytoplankton in northern Gulf of Alaska   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
The HNLC waters of the Gulf of Alaska normally receive too little iron for primary productivity to draw down silicate and nitrate in surface waters, even in spring and summer. Our observations of chlorophyll sensed by SeaWiFS north of 54°N in pelagic waters (>500 m depth) of the gulf found that, on average, more than half of all surface chlorophyll was inside the 4 cm contours of anticyclonic mesoscale eddies (the ratio approaches 80% in spring months), yet these contours enclosed only 10% of the total surface area of pelagic waters in the gulf. Therefore, eddies dominate the chlorophyll and phytoplankton distribution in surface pelagic waters. We outline several eddy processes that enhance primary productivity. Eddies near the continental margin entrain nutrient - (and Fe) - rich and chlorophyll-rich coastal waters into their outer rings, advecting these waters into the basin interior to directly increase phytoplankton populations there. In addition, eddies carry excess nutrients and iron in their core waters into pelagic regions as they propagate away from the continental margin. As these anticyclonic eddies decay, their depressed isopycnals relax upward, injecting nutrients up toward the surface layer. We propose that this transport brings iron and macro-nutrients toward the surface mixed layer, where they are available for wind-forced mixing to bring them to surface. These mesoscale eddies decay slowly, but steadily, perhaps providing a relatively regular upward supply of macro-nutrients and iron toward euphotic layers. They might behave as isolated oases of enhanced marine productivity in an otherwise iron-poor basin. We note that much of this productivity might be near or just below the base of the surface mixed layer, and therefore poorly sampled by colour-sensing satellites. It is possible, then, that eddies enrich phytoplankton populations to a greater extent than noted from satellite surface observations only.  相似文献   

6.
Global observations of nonlinear mesoscale eddies   总被引：51，自引：0，他引：51  
Sixteen years of sea-surface height (SSH) fields constructed by merging the measurements from two simultaneously operating altimeters are analyzed to investigate mesoscale variability in the global ocean. The prevalence of coherent mesoscale features (referred to here as “eddies”) with radius scales of O(100 km) is readily apparent in these high-resolution SSH fields. An automated procedure for identifying and tracking mesoscale features based on their SSH signatures yields 35,891 eddies with lifetimes ?16 weeks. These long-lived eddies, comprising approximately 1.15 million individual eddy observations, have an average lifetime of 32 weeks and an average propagation distance of 550 km. Their mean amplitude and a speed-based radius scale as defined by the automated procedure are 8 cm and 90 km, respectively.The tracked eddies are found to originate nearly everywhere in the World Ocean, consistent with previous conclusions that virtually all of the World Ocean is baroclinically unstable. Overall, there is a slight preference for cyclonic eddies. However, there is a preference for the eddies with long lifetimes and large propagation distances to be anticyclonic. In the southern hemisphere, the distributions of the amplitudes and rotational speeds of eddies are more skewed toward large values for cyclonic eddies than for anticyclonic eddies. As a result, eddies with amplitudes >10 cm and rotational speeds >20 cm s−1 are preferentially cyclonic in the southern hemisphere. By contrast, there is a slight preference for anticyclonic eddies for nearly all amplitudes and rotational speeds in the northern hemisphere.On average, there is no evidence of anisotropy of these eddies. Their average shape is well represented as Gaussian within the central 2/3 of the eddy, but the implied radius of maximum rotational speed is 64% smaller than the observed radius of maximum speed. In part because of this mismatch between the radii of maximum axial speed in the observations and the Gaussian approximation, a case is made that a quadratic function that is a very close approximation of the mode profile of the eddy (i.e., the most frequently occurring value at each radius) is a better representation of the composite shape of the eddies. This would imply that the relative vorticity is nearly constant within the interiors of most eddies, i.e., the fluid motion consists approximately of solid-body rotation.Perhaps the most significant conclusion of this study is that essentially all of the observed mesoscale features outside of the tropical band 20°S-20°N are nonlinear by the metric U/c, where U is the maximum circum-average geostrophic speed within the eddy interior and c is the translation speed of the eddy. A value of U/c > 1 implies that there is trapped fluid within the eddy interior. Many of the extratropical eddies are highly nonlinear, with 48% having U/c > 5 and 21% having U/c > 10. Even in the tropics, approximately 90% of the observed mesoscale features are nonlinear by this measure.Two other nondimensional parameters also indicate strong degrees of nonlinearity in the tracked eddies. The distributions of all three measures of nonlinearity are more skewed toward large values for cyclonic eddies than for anticyclonic eddies in the southern hemisphere extratropics but the opposite is found in the northern hemisphere extratropics. There is thus a preference for highly nonlinear extratropical eddies to be cyclonic in the southern hemisphere but anticyclonic in the northern hemisphere.Further evidence in support of the interpretation of the observed features as nonlinear eddies is the fact that they propagate nearly due west with small opposing meridional deflections of cyclones and anticyclones (poleward and equatorward, respectively) and with propagation speeds that are nearly equal to the long baroclinic Rossby wave phase speed. These characteristics are consistent with theoretical expectations for large, nonlinear eddies. While there is no apparent dependence of propagation speed on eddy polarity, the eddy speeds relative to the local long Rossby wave phase speeds are found to be about 20% faster in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere. The distributions of the propagation directions of cyclones and anticyclones are essentially the same, except mirrored about a central azimuth angle of about 1.5° equatorward. This small, but we believe statistically significant, equatorward rotation of the central azimuth may be evidence of the effects of ambient currents (meridional advection or the effects of vertical shear on the potential vorticity gradient vector) on the propagation directions of the eddies.While the results presented here are persuasive evidence that most of the observed westward-propagating SSH variability consists of isolated nonlinear mesoscale eddies, it is shown that the eddy propagation speeds are about 25% slower than the westward propagation speeds of features in the SSH field that have scales larger than those of the tracked eddies. This scale dependence of the propagation speed may be evidence for the existence of dispersion and the presence of features that obey linear Rossby wave dynamics and have larger scales and faster propagation speeds than the nonlinear eddies. The amplitudes of these larger-scale signals are evidently smaller than those of the mesoscale eddy field since they are not easily isolated from the energetic nonlinear eddies.  相似文献   

7.
Nan Wan is a 20 km wide tidally-dominated embayment situated between two headlands on the south coast of Taiwan. During spring tides, sudden sea-surface temperature drops occur twice each tidal cycle in the western and central regions of the bay, but only once in the eastern region. Shipboard ADCP surveys, moored measurements and numerical modelling results demonstrate that the headlands on either side of the bay generate strong tidally-induced eddies within the bay on each phase of the tide. The geometry of the region leads to considerable difference in size between the flood and ebb eddies. The flood eddy fills the entire basin, while the ebb eddy fills the western and central region only. The strong (relative vorticity ≈10–16 f) cyclostrophic eddies are only weakly affected by Earth's rotation, and thus upwelling occurs within each eddy, causing two temperature drops per tidal cycle in the western and central region, while only one drop in the eastern region.  相似文献   

8.
1 IwrRODUcrIONIt is necessary to understand disastrous weather systems as the activities of exploitingand uti1izing marine resources, especialIy for the needs of navigation and oil-gas prospecting.Typhoon is the most frequent and dangerous disastrous weather system in summer-autumnseason in the Nolthwest Pacific Ocean. The explosive cyclogenesis developing quickly overocean is the most terrible weather system in winteL The explosive cycnogenesis grows fastwith high intensity of violent wi…  相似文献   

9.
A Batchelor-modon eddy is a highly specialized nonlinear vortex pair, whose potential vorticity depends linearly on the stream function viewed from the coordinates moving with the translation velocity of the eddy. To generalize it, a skewed model is developed by introducing a cubic nonlinearity in addition to the linear term. A perturbation analysis shows that the eddy region is no longer a circle but is elongated longitudinally or transversely according as the sign of the cubic term. Moreover, the eddy is slightly flattened or steepened. The cubic term increases or decreases the translation velocity, if the average radius and the amplitude are fixed. A numerical experiment on anf-plane is carried out to show that these skewed eddies retain their initial forms even after they turn a corner of the basin; they are as stable as (first-mode) standard Batchelor-modon eddies. The present skewed model gives a reasonable qualitative interpretation of deformed eddies which result from merging of two eddies or from initially Gaussian eddies near the boundary.  相似文献   

10.
Eddies in the Gulf of Alaska are important sources of coastal water and associated nutrients, iron, and biota to the high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll central Gulf of Alaska. Three primary eddy formation regions along the eastern boundary of the gulf have been identified, (from south to north, Haida, Sitka, and Yakutat). In the spring of 2005, three eddies (one of each type) were sampled soon after their formation. The subsurface eddy core water in all three eddies was defined by high iron concentrations and low dissolved oxygen compared with surrounding basin water. The Sitka and Yakutat core waters also exhibited a subsurface temperature maximum (mesothermal water) coincident in depth with the iron maximum, suggesting that eddies may play a role in the formation of temperature inversions observed throughout the Gulf of Alaska. The data suggest different formation regions, with the Yakutat eddy forming in shallow shelf water with riverine input, while the Sitka and Haida eddies appear to form in deeper water.  相似文献   

11.
Numerical experiments were performed to investigate the effects of eddies generated in deep water formation processes on an abyssal circulation in a closed bowl-shaped basin. Two sets of experiments were performed. One set was eddy-restricted experiments in which only a volume-driven (upwelling-driven) circulation was simulated and the other set was eddy-permitted experiments in which both a volume-driven circulation and an eddy-driven circulation were simulated. In the two layer experiment where the lower layer water is formed, a mean along-slope current is formed in the lower layer for both the eddy-restricted and eddy-permitted experiments. The direction of the current was not unique in the eddy-restricted experiment, but it was cyclonic in the eddy-permitted experiment. In the three layer experiments where water of the intermediate layer is formed, the mean along-slope current in the lowest layer is negligibly small in the eddy-restricted experiment, while it is large and cyclonic in the eddy-permitted experiment. The driving forcings of the eddy-driven circulation are quantified in terms of eddy fluxes of relative vorticity (Reynolds stress) and layer thickness (bolus velocity). These terms increase as the volume of the newly formed water increases, but they do not change greatly with the slope height. The magnitude of these terms changes with the slope width, but the sum of these terms does not vary greatly. As a result, the intensity of the eddy-driven circulation depends primarily on the volume of newly formed water. These dependences of eddy fluxes were interpreted using downgradient diffusion of potential vorticity.  相似文献   

12.
Three dimensional seismic data, offshore Brunei, provide evidence for a giant landslide with a volume of 1200 km3, an area of ∼ 5300 km2 and an average thickness of ∼ 240 m. It extends for over 120 km from the Baram Canyon in ∼ 200 m water depth to the deep basin floor of the North West Borneo Trough. The landslide is a unique example of a major submarine landslide located on a steep, tectonically active margin adjacent to a large river and canyon system. The landslide is mappable using 3D seismic data, which allow detailed imaging of internal flow structures, erosional headwall and the basal sliding surface. The landslide is a complex deposit, involving a chaotic debris flow matrix, with flow structures and blocks 500 to 1000 m wide and up to 250 m thick. Imaging of the basal sliding surface reveals large striations ∼ 30-120 km long, ∼ 100-600 m wide, and ∼ 10-30 m deep that show significant amounts of basal erosion. In the landslide source area we describe fluid escape structures, gas buildups and bottom simulating reflectors, which may provide a mechanism for weakening and triggering slope failure. We also report older landslides, buried several hundred meters beneath the basin floor that indicate giant landsliding is a recurrent process in the NW Borneo Trough.  相似文献   

13.
本文基于Chelton提供的涡旋数据集和浮标漂流轨迹提取的涡旋结果,对1993—2015年的全球涡旋进行特征信息对比分析。结果表明,在全球范围内高度计涡旋数据集中的欧拉涡旋和浮标漂流轨迹提取的拉格朗日涡旋的配对成功率在空间分布上并不均衡,在中纬度(20°—60°S,20°—60°N)配对成功率最高可达25%,而在20°S—20°N区域内配对成功率不到10%。由于低纬度地转效应并不显著,卫星高度计无法有效观测到涡旋,但通过浮标漂流轨迹识别出的拉格朗日涡旋却大量存在,这说明在低纬度区域内,采用漂流浮标手段对涡旋进行观测,能够有效地弥补卫星高度计识别涡旋的区域限制。进一步分析表明,总体而言,提取的欧拉涡旋半径要大于拉格朗日涡旋闭合回路半径。两种识别方法获得的涡旋(闭合回路)在20°—50°S, 20°—50°N的副热带和中纬度海区半径大致相当; 20°S—20°N度以内(特别是近赤道区域)、高纬度区域以及西边界流区域,欧拉涡旋半径是同期拉格朗日涡旋闭合回路半径的3倍或更多。此外,对配对涡旋的Rossby数分析结果显示,拉格朗日涡旋较小的闭合回路对应较大的平均相对涡度,这表明浮标在被中尺度涡俘获后,更容易在相对涡度较大的地方(如中尺度涡中心、中尺度涡边缘等)形成闭合回路。  相似文献   

14.
Closed loop mesoscale eddies were identified and tracked in the Ulleung Basin of the southwestern Japan/East Sea (JES) using the winding-angle (WA) methodology, for mapping the absolute geostrophic currents into surface streamlines of flow. The geostrophic velocity used here was the sum of the Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic data (AVISO), time variable velocity and the 1992–2007 mean geostrophic velocity. Local sampling bias was removed using the drifter observations. This WA methodology of deriving the Lagrangian path lines that drifters followed over a 7-day period was validated by individual drifter tracks and it demonstrated closed looping eddy motions. The WA method demonstrated that less than 6% of the closed streamlines appeared when drifters did not show a closed loop in their vicinity, compared to 30% of the excess detection rate by the Okubo–Weiss method of locating closed loop structures. Three groups of eddies were identified: (1) Coastal Cold and Warm Eddies, which appeared in the area between the coast of southern Korea and the East Korean Warm Current (EKWC), when a southward coastal current was present, (2) Frontal Cold and Warm Eddies, which were formed in the region of the seaward extension of the meandering EKWC, north of Ulleung Island and (3) Ulleung Warm Eddies (UWE) and Dok Cold Eddies (DCE), which appeared during meanders of the EKWC, in the Ulleung Basin. No seasonal concentration for eddy generation and eddy population was found. The average radius of eddies was about 38–60 km. These were born, moved in an erratic pattern and then died in the vicinity where the EKWC separated from the coast and formed a large meander. The time-mean large meander formed meridionally concentrated bands of positive and negative relative vorticity. The cyclonic (cold) eddies tend to reside within the band of positive time-mean relative vorticity, and the anticyclonic (warm) eddies reside within the bands of negative relative vorticity. Six UWE and four warm eddies, in the Yamato Basin (about 10% of warm eddies), were sustained longer than a year. Because the large meander of the EKWC appeared to be controlled by topography, and the JES is a nearly enclosed basin with rapid flow-out to the east through the narrow Tsugaru Strait, there was little eddy energy propagation to the west. The warm eddies in the southwestern part of the JES appeared to be interacting very locally with the mean flow.  相似文献   

15.
上混合中剪切湍流和朗缪尔环流动力特征差异   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
Large eddy simulation(LES) is used to investigate contrasting dynamic characteristics of shear turbulence(ST)and Langmuir circulation(LC) in the surface mixed layer(SML). ST is usually induced by wind forcing in SML. LC can be driven by wave-current interaction that includes the roles of wind, wave and vortex forcing. The LES results show that LC suppresses the horizontal velocity and greatly modifies the downwind velocity profile, but increases the vertical velocity. The strong downwelling jets of LC accelerate and increase the downward transport of energy as compared to ST. The vertical eddy viscosity Km of LC is much larger than that of ST. Strong mixing induced by LC has two locations. They are located in the 2ds–3ds(Stokes depth scale) and the lower layer of the SML,respectively. Its value and position change periodically with time. In contrast, maximum Km induced by ST is located in the middle depth of the SML. The turbulent kinetic energy(TKE) generated by LC is larger than that by ST. The differences in vertical distributions of TKE and Km are evident. Therefore, the parameterization of LC cannot be solely based on TKE. For deep SML, the convection of large-scale eddies in LC plays a main role in downward transport of energy and LC can induce stronger velocity shear(S2) near the SML base. In addition, the large-scale eddies and S2 induced by LC is changing all the time, which needs to be fully considered in the parameterization of LC.  相似文献   

16.
南印度洋中尺度涡统计特征及三维合成结构研究   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  
南印度洋是海洋中尺度涡的多发区域。本文利用卫星高度计资料及Argo浮标资料,对南印度洋（10°~35°S, 50°~120°E）区域中尺度涡的分布、表观特征等进行了统计分析,采用合成方法,构建了该区域中尺度涡的三维温盐结构。结果表明,涡旋频率呈明显的纬向带状分布,在18°~30°S存在一个明显的涡旋频率带状高值区;涡旋半径具有由南至北逐渐增大的趋势;长周期涡旋在其生命周期内,半径、涡动能、涡能量密度、涡度等性质均经历了先增大而后减小的过程;涡旋以西向运动为主,在经向上移动距离较小,长周期气旋（反气旋）涡具有明显的偏向极地（赤道）移动的倾向;涡旋平均移动速度为5.9 cm/s,速度大小大致沿纬向呈带状分布。在混合层以下,气旋涡（反气旋涡）内部分别呈现明显的温度负（正）异常,且分别存在两个位温负（正）异常的冷（暖）核结构;气旋涡（反气旋涡）整体上呈现"正-负"（"负-正"）上下层相反的盐度异常结构。中尺度涡对温盐的平均影响深度可达1 000×104 Pa以上。  相似文献   

17.
Rhines效应是指Rossby波和大湍流（中尺度涡）相互作用,将涡动能量以波的形式传播出去,从而使中尺度涡发生形变,最终消亡的一种动力学机制。本文通过比较海洋里涡特征速度和Rossby长波波速的方法,研究了一种广义的Rhines效应对高度计观测的海洋中尺度涡空间分布特征的影响。结果显示,广义Rhines效应比只考虑行星涡度梯度的传统形式对中尺度涡的分布具有更显著的影响。大部分中尺度涡分布在涡特征速度（Ue）大于由广义Beta值计算的Rossby长波波速（Ucg）的区域。这些涡可以由动能反向串级过程获取能量,成长为振幅和空间尺度较大的涡。热带海域以外的“涡旋沙漠”区域,中尺度涡的数量稀少,强度很弱,大都分布于Uecg的海域。广义Rhines效应可能是这些海域中尺度涡难以成长的动力学机制。  相似文献   

18.
In order to more fully understand the distribution of meiofauna and how they respond to topographic, geochemical and physical forcing in the northern Gulf of Mexico, meiofauna abundance and environmental variables were analyzed in a hypothesis-based univariate and multivariate design. Meiofauna abundance was significantly related to water depth, but also exhibited significant longitudinal differences resulting from proximity to Mississippi River outflow. Canyon features in proximity of Mississippi River outflow were found to greatly enhance meiofauna abundance. The Florida Escarpment interacts with Mississippi River outflow and the Loop Current to enhance meiofauna abundance at stations lying directly above and below the escarpment. Multivariate comparisons of meiofauna abundance with environmental variables revealed a strong Mississippi River influence. River outflow alters local sediment characteristics, and interacts with loop current eddies and dynamic slope topography to increase particulate organic matter flux in the northeastern region, thus creating areas of higher than normal meiofauna abundance.  相似文献   

19.
Two anticyclonic subsurface eddies (SSEs) are detected from the in-situ hydrography data of the southern South China Sea (SCS) during 15–25 October 2011. Both SSEs have the lens-shaped water bodies below the thermocline. Their maximum swirl speed appears at the depth of lens׳ core, which is also characterized by a dump in the T–S diagram. These eddies do not have an enclosed saline-water or warm-water body in its lens׳ core, which is different from those SSEs reported in other seas. These SSEs should be locally generated by the horizontal shear of the Southeast Vietnam Offshore Current. In the SSE generation site of the southern SCS, there is an upper-layer anticyclonic eddy (AE2) that is right above the SSE (SE2). After leaving its generation site, the eddy loses its energy source and starts to weaken. In this case, the eddy will decay quickly in the upper layer due to the restraint of the thermocline, and finally evolves into a pure subsurface eddy (i.e. SE4).  相似文献   

20.
The response of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) circulation to large-scale North Pacific climate variability is explored using three high resolution (15 km) regional ocean model ensembles over the period 1950-2004. On interannual and decadal timescales the mean circulation is strongly modulated by changes in the large scale climate forcing associated with PDO and ENSO. Intensification of the model gyre scale circulation occurs after the 1976-1977 climate shift, as well as during 1965-1970 and 1993-1995. From the model dynamical budgets we find that when the GOA experiences stronger southeasterly winds, typical during the positive phase of the PDO and ENSO, there is net large-scale Ekman convergence in the central and eastern coastal boundary. The geostrophic adjustment to higher sea surface height (SSH) and lower isopycnals lead to stronger cyclonic gyre scale circulation. The opposite situation occurs during stronger northwesterly winds (negative phase of the PDO).Along the eastern side of the GOA basin, interannual changes in the surface winds also modulate the seasonal development of high amplitude anticyclonic eddies (e.g. Haïda and Sitka eddies). Large interannual eddy events during winter-spring, are phase-locked with the seasonal cycle. The initial eddy dynamics are consistent with a quasi-linear Rossby wave response to positive SSH anomalies forced by stronger downwelling favorable winds (e.g. southwesterly during El Niño). However, because of the fast growth rate of baroclinic instability and the geographical focusing associated with the coastal geometry, most of the perturbation energy in the Rossby wave is locally trapped until converted into large scale nonlinear coherent eddies. Coastally trapped waves of tropical origin may also contribute to positive SSH anomalies that lead to higher amplitude eddies. However, their presence does not appear essential. The model ensembles, which do not include the effects of equatorial coastally trapped waves, capture the large Haïda and Sitka eddy events observed during 1982 and 1997 and explain between 40% and 70% of the tidal gauges variance along the GOA coast.In the western side of the GOA basin, interannual eddy variability located south of the Alaskan Stream is not correlated with large scale forcing and appears to be intrinsic. A comparison of the three model ensembles forced by NCEP winds and a multi-century-long integration forced only with the seasonal cycle, shows that the internal variability alone explains most of the eddy variance. The asymmetry between the eddy forced regime in the eastern basin, and the intrinsic regime in the western basin, has important implications for predicting the GOA response to climate change. If future climate change results in stronger wintertime winds and increased downwelling in the eastern basin, then increased mesoscale activity (perhaps more or larger eddies) might occur in this region. Conversely, the changes in the western basin are not predictable based on environmental forcing. Eastern eddies transport important biogeochemical quantities such as iron, oxygen and chlorophyll-a into the gyre interior, therefore having potential upscale effects on the GOA high-nutrient-low-chlorophyll region.  相似文献   

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