In:
Journal of Physical Oceanography, American Meteorological Society, Vol. 43, No. 3 ( 2013-03-01), p. 631-646
Abstract:
The upwelling system off southern Peru has been observed using an autonomous underwater vehicle (a Slocum glider) during October–November 2008. Nine cross-front sections have been carried out across an intense upwelling cell near 14°S. During almost two months, profiles of temperature, salinity, and fluorescence were collected at less than 1-km resolution, between the surface and 200-m depth. Estimates of alongshore absolute geostrophic velocities were inferred from the density field and the glider drift between two surfacings. In the frontal region, salinity and biogeochemical fields displayed cross-shore submesoscale filamentary structures throughout the mission. Those features presented a width of 10–20 km, a vertical extent of ~150 m, and appeared to propagate toward the shore. They were steeper than isopycnals and kept an aspect ratio close to f/N, the inverse of the Prandtl ratio. These filamentary structures may be interpreted mainly as a manifestation of submesoscale turbulence through stirring of the salinity gradients by the mesoscale eddy field. However, meandering of the front or cross-frontal wind-driven instabilities could also play a role in inducing vertical velocities.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0022-3670
,
1520-0485
DOI:
10.1175/JPO-D-12-035.1
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Publication Date:
2013
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2042184-9
detail.hit.zdb_id:
184162-2
Permalink