Summertime Coastal Currents in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico
- 1 January 1983
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of Physical Oceanography
- Vol. 13 (1) , 65-77
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1983)013<0065:sccitn>2.0.co;2
Abstract
Observations of currents and temperature at a mooring on the 18 m isobath, 30 km south of the Florida shoreline, are discussed for the 31-day period 15 August–15 September 1978. Tidal currents, having average amplitudes of ∼10 cm s−1, account for 85% of the observed kinetic energy. Low-frequency currents with maximum speeds of ∼10 cm s−1 appear to be at least partly driven by local wind-stress events of magnitude ∼0.2 dyn cm−2. Frictional effects give rise to a veering with depth (in the Ekman sense) of both the low-frequency flow and the energetic, counterclockwise-rotating twice-daily tidal currents. Propagation of both the tidal signal and low-frequency coastal sea-level fluctuations (amplitudes <5 cm) is westward through the study area.Keywords
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