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Title: On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight

Abstract

Two field studies were conducted across and along the continental shelf, one from February to May 1996 (deployment 1) and the other from July to October 1996 (deployment 2), in part to determine the mass and salt budgets of shelf water from south of Cape Henry to north of Cape Hatteras, the southernmost portion of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The temporal means of current meter records indicated that most of the water enters the region across its northern boundary near the shelf break as part of a southward, alongshore current and exits the southeast corner as a southeastward flowing current. Estimates of the volume transports indicated that not all the transport across the northern boundary was accounted for by transport across the southern boundary, and that the remainder occurred as a broad, diffusive flow across the eastern boundary at the shelf break. Time series of volume transport across northern and southern boundaries were very similar and associated with variations in the alongshore wind stress and sea level, indicative of a geostrophic balance. Examination of the individual current meter records indicated these fluctuations were very barotropic even during deployment 2, which included the stratified summer season. Time series of the volume transportmore » across the eastern boundary at the shelf break strongly mirrored the volume transport across the northern boundary minus that across the southern boundary, suggesting that the inferred eastern boundary transport was real and accommodated whatever the southern boundary could not. The turbulent salt flux across each boundary contributes very little to the net respective mass fluxes because the salt fluxes are almost governed by current velocity fields. The instantaneous and mean salt fluxes across each boundary were very well approximated by the instantaneous and mean volume transports across the boundary times the deployment average salinity across that boundary, respectively. The Ocean Margins Program (OMP) moored current and salinity observations appear sufficient to make estimates of the mean and time-dependent mass and salt balance.« less

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL (US); Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL (US); Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (US)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
OSTI Identifier:
809184
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/61416-1
TRN: US200716%%512
DOE Contract Number:  
FG02-92ER61416
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: J. Geophysical Research, 106, C12, Dec 2001, Pages 31,263-31,282; PBD: 1 Dec 2001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; CONTINENTAL SHELF; FLUCTUATIONS; MASS TRANSFER; METERS; MID-ATLANTIC BIGHT; SALINITY; SEA LEVEL; TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS; TRANSPORT; VELOCITY; WATER; WATER CURRENTS; PROGRESS REPORT

Citation Formats

Kim, Yoo Yin, Weatherly, Georges L, and Pietrafesa, Leonard J. On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. United States: N. p., 2001. Web. doi:10.2172/809184.
Kim, Yoo Yin, Weatherly, Georges L, & Pietrafesa, Leonard J. On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/809184
Kim, Yoo Yin, Weatherly, Georges L, and Pietrafesa, Leonard J. 2001. "On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/809184. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/809184.
@article{osti_809184,
title = {On the mass and salt budgets for a region of the continental shelf in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight},
author = {Kim, Yoo Yin and Weatherly, Georges L and Pietrafesa, Leonard J},
abstractNote = {Two field studies were conducted across and along the continental shelf, one from February to May 1996 (deployment 1) and the other from July to October 1996 (deployment 2), in part to determine the mass and salt budgets of shelf water from south of Cape Henry to north of Cape Hatteras, the southernmost portion of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The temporal means of current meter records indicated that most of the water enters the region across its northern boundary near the shelf break as part of a southward, alongshore current and exits the southeast corner as a southeastward flowing current. Estimates of the volume transports indicated that not all the transport across the northern boundary was accounted for by transport across the southern boundary, and that the remainder occurred as a broad, diffusive flow across the eastern boundary at the shelf break. Time series of volume transport across northern and southern boundaries were very similar and associated with variations in the alongshore wind stress and sea level, indicative of a geostrophic balance. Examination of the individual current meter records indicated these fluctuations were very barotropic even during deployment 2, which included the stratified summer season. Time series of the volume transport across the eastern boundary at the shelf break strongly mirrored the volume transport across the northern boundary minus that across the southern boundary, suggesting that the inferred eastern boundary transport was real and accommodated whatever the southern boundary could not. The turbulent salt flux across each boundary contributes very little to the net respective mass fluxes because the salt fluxes are almost governed by current velocity fields. The instantaneous and mean salt fluxes across each boundary were very well approximated by the instantaneous and mean volume transports across the boundary times the deployment average salinity across that boundary, respectively. The Ocean Margins Program (OMP) moored current and salinity observations appear sufficient to make estimates of the mean and time-dependent mass and salt balance.},
doi = {10.2172/809184},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/809184}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2001},
month = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2001}
}