Oceanography Seminar Tuesday 2pm
<p> Please see the seminar announcement below for the first of three<br /> assistant professor candidates in the Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric<br /> Sciences Department.<br /> <br /> <br /> >> TUESDAY, 4 JUNE 2013 <<<br /> 2:00 p.m., Room 1202<br /> Engineering and Computational Sciences Building<br /> <br /> Robert E. Todd<br /> Postdoctoral Investigator<br /> Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<br /> <br /> Title: Cross-shelfbreak exchange in the Middle Atlantic Bight<br /> <br /> Abstract:<br /> In the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB), a shelfbreak front separates cool,<br /> fresh shelf waters from warmer, saltier slope waters; farther offshore,<br /> the Gulf Stream carries even warmer and saltier waters. Analysis of<br /> upper ocean thermohaline structure over the shelfbreak and continental<br /> rise reveals that interleaving of shelf and slope waters across the<br /> shelfbreak is the leading source of cross-shelf horizontal variability<br /> within at least 100 km of the shelfbreak and contributes to alongshelf<br /> horizontal variability within 50 km of the shelfbreak. Horizontal<br /> spatial scales increase from O(10 km) near the shelfbreak to O(30 km)<br /> over the continental rise. Entrainment of shelf water by anticyclonic<br /> Gulf Stream warm core rings is a leading mechanism of exchange across<br /> the shelfbreak front. Recent observations in the MAB and laboratory<br /> experiments show that larger volumes of shelf water are carried farther<br /> offshore as the relative strength of anticyclones increases. In rare<br /> cases, the Gulf Stream itself impinges upon the shelfbreak; in the fall<br /> of 2011, such an event brought warm, salty Gulf Stream waters onto the<br /> outer continental shelf south of Cape Cod.</p>
Posted By: John Klinck
Date: Fri May 31 10:40:17 EDT 2013