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A pair of time-lagged satellite images of surface algae in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon is used to investigate characteristics of the horizontal velocity field at a spatial resolution as small as 4 m. A distinctive feature is the occurrence of surface patches that are relatively clear of algae and which grow in size. These patches are interpreted as resulting from the horizontally diverging motion associated with boils. The surface divergence in such boils can be as large as ~ 0.01 s −1 , as deduced directly from the imagery. Overall, root-mean-squared values of divergence, vorticity, and strain rate are 45, 58, and 170, respectively, when normalized by the Coriolis parameter. By observing the algae and its fluid environment simultaneously, the analysis thus provides a glimpse of how underlying hydrodynamic processes help shape the distribution of surface algae — under the calm winds that favor the formation of dense surface aggregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Phytoplankton community and environmental factors were investigated in the surface water from eastern Indian Ocean (EIO) to southern South China Sea (SCS) during April–May monsoon transition period both in 2010 and 2011. Our results indicated that the surface current patterns were different in the two cruises. Sea surface salinity (SSS) was lower in Java Sea (JS), but its salinity front obviously moved to the middle of Sunda Strait when surface waters flowed from JS to EIO in May of 2010. Nutrient concentrations were generally higher in Sunda Strait and JS. Silicate concentrations were significantly lower in EIO suggesting a possibility of silicate limitation for the growth of phytoplankton, which were less than 1µmolL−1 in the offshore stations of EIO in May of 2010. Phytoplankton abundance and biodiversity were significant higher in Sunda strait and its adjacent stations, with larger cell-size and higher diatoms proportion. More offshore species were found in Sunda Strait when surface waters flowed from EIO to JS in April of 2011. Nutrient source can be different in Sunda Strait during inflow or outflow of surface waters. The spatial variation of phytoplankton community was greatly determined by Chaetoceros spp., Navicula sp., Pleurosigma affine, Thalassionema frauenfeldii and nano-dinoflagelage. Salinity, nitrate and silicate were the most important environmental factors regulating the variation of phytoplankton community. This study suggests that spatial distribution of phytoplankton and environmental factors are significantly influenced by the surface current patterns and river discharges, and these influences should be greater in dry season. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We analyze the short-term transition, on time scales of the order of days and weeks, of the surface fields in the coastal transition zone off Northwest Africa, between 15°N and 25°N, during winter and spring 2005 and 2006. This is a complex region characterized by the baroclinic coastal jet north of Cape Blanc, along-shore convergence and water export at the Cape Blanc giant filament, and substantial mesoscale variability between Capes Verde and Blanc. We use the anomalies of the wind impulse and two different coastal upwelling indexes, evaluated off 17°N, 20°N and 23°N, in order to assess the importance of wind forcing in this short-term variability. We also employ daily and weekly surface maps of wind, temperature, surface height and currents to investigate which are the mechanisms that lead to the relatively fast changes in the flow patterns. The coastal baroclinic jet and the Cape Blanc giant filament are ubiquitous features, the two being intrinsically related through the intensity of upwelling off Cape Blanc. Therefore, the strength of both features responds, to a large extent, to the fluctuations of the northeasterly winds; their intensity is greater in spring than winter but during both seasons they experience relatively fast oscillations related to the intermittency of the wind field. The mesoscalar features are visible in the entire domain, with time scales typically of the order of two weeks, but become prominent in the southern region during spring, apparently related to an intense northward coastal jet south of Cape Blanc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Measurements from recently installed 5MHz high-frequency radar (CODAR) stations south of Point Arena, California, are used to describe surface current patterns during the upwelling season (June–August 2007). The systems provide hourly current maps on a 5-km grid, covering a region from approximately 10 to 150km offshore (the continental shelf into the deep ocean). These HF-radar observations provide an unprecedented view of circulation in this “coastal transition zone”, between the wind-driven circulation over the shelf and the California Current circulation offshore. Circulation patterns include: (1) bifurcation of the coastal upwelling jet downstream of Point Arena into an along-shelf (down-coast) branch and an offshore branch, and (2) a large-scale anticyclonic meander that often develops into an eddy-like recirculation south of the bifurcation. The “recirculation” feature extends well offshore, with surface currents 50–100km from the coast consistently opposing the wind stress. The spatial and temporal evolution of the surface current features during upwelling events affects surface transport from Point Arena to areas in the south, increasing the travel time of a substantial fraction of newly upwelled water from a few days to roughly two weeks. Thus, surface currents even far offshore influence coastal transport of nutrients, phytoplankton and larvae on ecologically relevant timescales, with resultant connectivity patterns very different than implied by a simple examination of the mean flow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A technique for reconstruction of the 2d surface velocity field from radar observations is proposed. The method consecutively employs two processing techniques: At the first stage raw radial velocity data are subject to EOF analysis, which enables to fill gaps in observations and provides estimates of the noise level and integral parameters characterizing small-scale variability of the sea surface circulation. These parameters are utilized at the second stage, when the cost function for variational interpolation is constructed, and the updated radial velocities are interpolated on the regular grid. Experiments with simulated and real data are used to assess the method''s skill and compare it with the conventional 2d variational (2dVar) approach. It is shown that the proposed technique consistently improves performance of the 2dVar algorithm and becomes particularly effective when a radar stops operating for 1–2 days and/or a persistent gap emerges in spatial coverage of a basin by the HFR network. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sub-inertial across-shelf flows over the central mid-Atlantic Bight were examined using long-range CODAR SeaSonde type HF-radar surface velocities for the period August 2002 through February 2004. Across-shelf flow in this region was found to be episodic, with offshore flow occurring six times more often than onshore flow. Several recurring spatial patterns in offshore flow are identified, and two of these patterns emerge as statistically significant using empirical orthogonal functions. The most common type of offshore flow was a shelf-wide flow with events occurring throughout the year. The most energetic and well-defined shelf-wide flow events occurred during October through April, when the water column was less stratified. Other offshore flow patterns were more localized, with a flow at the bend or ‘point’ in the New Jersey coast being most common and most energetic. The offshore flow events identified here are capable of driving significant offshore transport, with more than one-third of offshore flow episodes having potential transport distances of greater than 14km. In addition, clusters of multiple offshore flow events are shown to be capable of transporting near-surface material across much of the continental shelf. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Observations of surface velocity data from August 2002 to February 2004 were collected by a series of four long-range high-frequency (HF) radars along the coast of New Jersey. The shelf observations of the central Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) were compared to historical observations of surface flow characteristics in the area. The time-averaged spatial mean velocity of 4cm/s in the down-shelf along-shelf direction and 3cm/s in the offshore across-shelf direction compared very well to historical surface measurements in the study region. However, as the spatial resolution of the data set revealed, this simple measure masked significant spatial variations in the overall and seasonal mean flow structures. Three regions – the south bank of the Hudson Shelf Valley, the southern New Jersey inner shelf (LEO-15) region, and the region offshore of the Delaware Bay mouth (southwest corner) – had mean flows that favor offshore transport of surface water. In terms of temporal variability, maps of the principle axes showed that the across-shelf (minor) axis contribution was not insignificant in the surface layer ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 of along-shelf (major) axis and that there were seasonal differences in orientation and ellipticity. Analysis of the spatial changes in the temporal and spatial correlation scales over the shelf showed that shelf position, in addition to site separation, contributed to the differences in these properties. Furthermore, observations over the Hudson Shelf Valley region suggested that this was a region of transition in which the orientation of along- and across-shelf components begin to change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The waters dominating the Brazilian Continental Shelf to the south of Santa Marta Cape (28°40′S) are marked by their strong interannual variability. Both the seasonal oscillation of the Brazil–Malvinas (Falkland) Confluence (BMC) region and the seasonal variations of the La Plata River and Patos Lagoon outflows are reflected in the seasonal changes of the vertical and horizontal water mass structure in the Southern Brazilian Shelf. In the region to the north of Santa Marta Cape, the shelf is mainly described in the literature as dominated by Tropical Waters (TW) transported southwards by the Brazil Current (BC). However, the first Lagrangian (buoy) measurements made on the inner Brazilian shelf have shown that a coastal current flowing in the opposite direction in relation to the BC occurred on the shelf as far north as 24°S during the 1993 austral autumn and winter. Recent papers have suggested that the arrival at low latitudes of cold waters originating in the BMC region is an anomalous phenomenon and that it can be either forced by local winds during wintertime or related to the ENSO. High-resolution sea surface temperature (SST) imagery and the Lagrangian measurements taken in 1993 and 1994 are used in this paper to describe the temperatures, velocity, energy and oscillations present in this coastal current. These two data sets show that the current is not only fed by waters of Subantarctic or coastal origin but also receives a contribution of TW at the surface by lateral mixing. By analysing a set of monthly averaged SST images from 1982 to 1995, this work suggests that the intrusion of cold waters transported by the coastal current can be a regular winter phenomenon occurring on the Brazilian shelf at latitudes up to the vicinity of 25°S. Given its consistency, this current is named here the Brazilian Coastal Current. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Upcoming satellite missions will observe the sea surface height (SSH) fields at a very high spatial resolution, which has generated an urgent need to better understand how well geostrophy can represent the ocean current field at finer scales, particularly in coastal regions characterized by complex flow geometry. We conduct statistical and spectral analyses of high-resolution surface currents and SSHs off the Oregon coast to examine the relative contribution of geostrophy and ageostrophy in coastal ocean currents. We analyze forward numerical simulations based primarily on a regional ocean model (ROMS) and use regional observations of high-frequency radar (HFR)-derived surface currents and altimeter-derived geostrophic currents and a subset of global domain numerical simulations (MITgcm) as secondary resources. Regional submesoscale ageostrophic currents account for up to 50% of the total variance and are primarily associated with near-inertial currents and internal tides. Geostrophy becomes dominant at time scales longer than 3 to 10 days and at spatial scales longer than 50 km, and is dependent on the depth and distance from the coast in the cross-shore direction. Ageostrophy dominates in the near-inertial and super-inertial frequency bands, which correspond to near-inertial motions (Coriolis force dominates) and high-frequency internal waves/tides (pressure gradient dominates), respectively. Because of ageostrophy, it may not be possible to estimate submesoscale currents from SSHs obtained from upcoming satellite missions using the geostrophic relationship. Thus, other concurrent high-resolution in-situ observations such as HFR-derived surface currents, together with data assimilation techniques, should be used for constructive data integration to resolve submesoscale currents. • Dynamical relationships between coastal surface currents and SSHs are examined. • Delineation of geostrophy and ageostrophy and their balance are presented. • Coastal ageostrophy is attributed to near-inertial variance and internal tides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]