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Variability in pigment concentration in warm-core rings as determined by coastal zone color scanner satellite imagery from the Mid-Atlantic BightA time series of coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) derived chlorophyll (CZCS-chl) and sea surface temperature (SST) satellite imagery was developed for the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB). Warm-core rings (WCR) were identified by both the warmer SST signal as well as the low pigment concentrations of their cores. The variation in pigment concentrations and SST observed in satellite imagery over the geographic range and life span of four WCRs is investigated. The hypotheses are that pigment concentration increase during the lifetime of the WCR is a response to processes such as convective overturn, upwelling, edge enhancement due to increased vertical mixing, active convergence, or lateral exchange. Empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF) is used to investigate the relationship between SST and pigment patterns observed in the presence of a WCR. The first two EOF modes explain more than 80% of the variability observed in all four WCRs and in both (SST and pigment) data sets. The results of this study show that, at the synoptic scales of staellite data, the variability observed in the WCRs is greater at the periphery of the rings. These results show that advective entrainment, rather than processes at ring center (e.g., shoaling of the pycnocline/nutricline in response to frictional decay) or at the periphery due to other processes such as vertical mixing, is the mechanism responsible for the observed variability.
Document ID
19950052581
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Garcia-Moliner, Graciela
(Rhode Island Univ. Narragansett, RI, United States)
Yoder, James A.
(Rhode Island Univ. Narragansett, RI, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
July 15, 1994
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 99
Issue: C7
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Oceanography
Accession Number
95A84180
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NGT-70241
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-1891
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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