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Temperature-plant pigment-optical relations in a recurrent offshore mesoscale eddy near Point Conception, CaliforniaThe temperature-plant pigment-optical structure of a mesoscale anticyclonic eddy consistently found in shipboard surveys and satellite-sensed data several hundred kilometers southwest of Point Conception, CA, is described on three different time scales (100-day mesoscale, annual, and several-year). The satellite coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) ocean color imagery detected the near-surface chlorophyll structure of the eddy, but in situ optical and plant pigment data suggest that such imagery does not provide a good estimate of the integrated chlorophyll field of the eddy. The temperature and plant pigment boundaries of the eddy, as determined from two-dimensional gradients of advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and CZCS imagery, do not coincide spatially. This and in situ temperature, plant pigment, and optical structure provide additional evidence that some eddy systems in the California Current are not isolated vortex systems but rather continuously entrain waters of nonlocal origin laterally into their upper layers. Within the California Current a ratio of AVHRR/CZCS data is useful for separating inshore from oceanic water masses and following their surface entrainment by offshore vortices. The historical 28-year California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations data for the Point Conception region of the California Current and remotely sensed data over this region show that the Point Conception eddy is a recurrent feature in the offshore California Current. Moreover, the available data provide evidence that a large number of warm-core mesoscale eddies occur simultaneously in a transition zone between coastal and oceanic regimes, that these features recur at preferred locations within the transition zone, and that this family of eddies should impose a significant offshore boundary condition on the flow of the California Current.
Document ID
19870036446
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Simpson, James J.
(California Univ. La Jolla, CA, United States)
Pelaez, Jose
(California Univ. La Jolla, CA, United States)
Haury, Loren R.
(California Univ. La Jolla, CA, United States)
Wiesenhahn, David
(California, University La Jolla, United States)
Koblinsky, Chester J.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 13, 2013
Publication Date
November 15, 1986
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 91
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Oceanography
Report/Patent Number
AD-A176666
Accession Number
87A23720
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: N00014-86-K-0752
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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