Wind-Induced Currents and Bottom-Trapped Waves in the Santa Barbara Channel

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Abstract
The Santa Barbara Channel (SBC) is a coastal basin about 100 km long bounded by the Southern California mainland on the north and by a chain of islands on the south. The SBC is at most 50 km wide and just over 600 m deep. The nature of current and wind variance peaks in the 2–4-day and 4–6-day bands in the channel are analyzed from January to July 1984. For both bands the dominant empirical mode of the currents is highly coherent with the dominant empirical mode of the winds over this region. Surface intensification of currents is revealed by measurements made between 25 and 300 m. In contrast the deeper currents are characterized by bottom trapping. Evidence for baroclinic bottom-trapped topographic Rossby waves is found on the northern shelf at the western mouth of the channel in both frequency bands. At 30 m the distribution of phases shows currents at the center of the western mouth leading the southern interisland passes by about 0.3 day and the eastern mouth by about 0.6 day. In both bands ... Abstract The Santa Barbara Channel (SBC) is a coastal basin about 100 km long bounded by the Southern California mainland on the north and by a chain of islands on the south. The SBC is at most 50 km wide and just over 600 m deep. The nature of current and wind variance peaks in the 2–4-day and 4–6-day bands in the channel are analyzed from January to July 1984. For both bands the dominant empirical mode of the currents is highly coherent with the dominant empirical mode of the winds over this region. Surface intensification of currents is revealed by measurements made between 25 and 300 m. In contrast the deeper currents are characterized by bottom trapping. Evidence for baroclinic bottom-trapped topographic Rossby waves is found on the northern shelf at the western mouth of the channel in both frequency bands. At 30 m the distribution of phases shows currents at the center of the western mouth leading the southern interisland passes by about 0.3 day and the eastern mouth by about 0.6 day. In both bands ...

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