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Dynamics of the Cold Water Event off the Southeast Coast of the United States in the Summer of 2003: An Application of NASA's Remote Sensing Data to Coastal StudiesThe Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard of Terra and Aqua satellites provide, for the first time, concurrent measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean color, which are suitable for coastal upwelling studies. The accuracy, the 1-km spatial resolution, and the almost complete daily coverage of the MODIS data compared with historical measurements make it advantageous for resolving important coastal fronts of chlorophyll concentration and temperature. The cold SST anomaly during summer 2003 off the coast of the South Atlantic Bight is an event that is comprehensively covered by NASA's MODIS and SeaWinds satellite observations. These data combined with in situ tide gauge, mooring, and ship measurements can be used to identify important dynamics responsible for the anomalous cold water event. The analysis of the data suggests that coastal upwelling occurs in the climatological summer forced by the climatological southerlies over the South Atlantic Bight area in summer. However, the strong buoyancy barrier in summer prevents the cold water below the thermocline from reaching the ocean surface. In summer 2003, the southwesterlies in July through August were extraordinarily strong and persistent, which generated the upwelling currents strong enough to overcome the buoyancy resistance. The results of this analysis demonstrate the possibility of monitoring and forecasting the event using combination of the satellite and in situ observations. The MODIS data are archived and distributed by the NASA's Goddard Earth Science (GES) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The data can be accessed via the URL http://wwv.daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODIS.
Document ID
20050071073
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Yuan, Dongliang
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Savtchenko, Andrey
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Li, Chunyan,
(Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography Savannah, GA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Oceanography
Meeting Information
Meeting: AGU Fall Meeting
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 13, 2004
End Date: December 17, 2004
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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