Tiempo de retención y capacidad de transporte de los remolinos del noroeste del golfo de México

Abstract

Los remolinos son estructuras transitorias que influyen en gran medida en la circulación promedio del océano. Modifican la distribución de masa y propiedades como calor, sal, clorofila y partículas inertes. La capacidad que tienen los remolinos para transportar propiedades o partículas depende de su capacidad de retención. En este estudio se identificaron y caracterizaron los remolinos de mesoescala del noroeste del golfo de México (NOGM) a través de un método lagrangiano que permite evaluar el tiempo de retención y la fracción de masa que pueden retener y transportar. Para el análisis, se utilizaron datos diarios de altimetría de 1993 a 2016. En el periodo de estudio se detectaron un total de 254 remolinos, 73 anticiclones y 181 ciclones. Se identificó una región (94.75º W, 26.75º N) donde ocurren ~30% del total de los remolinos ciclónicos detectados entre las isóbatas de 1,000 y 2,500 m. En promedio, el radio de los remolinos fue de ~40 km para la isobata <1,000 m y ~70 km para la isobata >2,500 m. Los remolinos de mesoescala del NOGM pueden trasportar ~60% de la masa que contenían al momento de ser detectados. En promedio, el transporte de masa ocurrió por 33 d para los ciclones y por 26 d para los anticiclones. Rara vez ocurrió por 60 d o más.

The effect of model tidal forcing on virtual particle dispersion and accumulation at the ocean surface

“…This implies a higher surface particle accumulation in winter (December to March) than in summer (July to September 2009 and May and June 2010). This could be due to the higher number of eddies present in winter than in summer (Ajayi et al, 2020) and their associated capacity to accumulate floating material (e.g., d 'Ovidio et al, 2013;Condie & Condie, 2016;Limer et al, 2020;Bello-Fuentes et al, 2021). We observe that this summerwinter difference is lower in the tidally than in the non-tidally forced simulation.…”

“…Not only can they transport floating material (Shanks, 2021), but they can also affect the background flow, namely eddies, by altering their kinetic energy (Mtfller, 1976;Bühler & McIntyre, 2005;Barkan et al, 2017), as internal waves can lead to the extraction of mesoscale energy through dissipation (Barkan et al, 2017). Since mesoscale eddies can retain floating material for several days (e.g., d 'Ovidio et al, 2013;Condie & Condie, 2016;Limer et al, 2020;Bello-Fuentes et al, 2021), this loss of energy could imply a loss of the coherence of their structure and thus of their capacity to accumulate/trap material. One of the main mechanisms that generate coherent eddy structures, are baroclinic instabilities (Stammer, 1997), and these can be modified by tidal forcing (Lin et al, 2023).…”

The effect of model tidal forcing on virtual particle dispersion and accumulation at the ocean surface

“…This implies a higher surface accumulation in winter (December to March) than in summer (July to September 2009 and May and June 2010). This could be due to the higher number of eddies present in winter than in summer and their associated capacity to accumulate float-ing material (e.g., d 'Ovidio et al, 2013;Condie & Condie, 2016;Limer et al, 2020;Bello-Fuentes et al, 2021). A higher presence of eddies in winter than in summer agrees with the higher eddy kinetic energy observed in winter than in summer in this region (Martins et al, 2002).…”

“…Not only can they transport floating material (Shanks, 2021), but they can also affect the background flow, namely eddies, by altering their kinetic energy (Mtfller, 1976;Bühler & McIntyre, 2005;Barkan et al, 2017), as internal waves can lead to the extraction of mesoscale energy through dissipation (Barkan et al, 2017). Since mesoscale eddies are able to retain floating material for several days (e.g., d 'Ovidio et al, 2013;Condie & Condie, 2016;Limer et al, 2020;Bello-Fuentes et al, 2021), this loss of energy could imply a loss of the coherence their structure and thus of their capacity to accumulate/trap material.…”

Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Ocean Dynamics

“…In contrast, Lagrangian eddies or Lagrangian coherent vortex (e.g., have material boundaries that withstand stretching or diffusion. They are therefore important for tracking the transport of ocean materials (Bello-Fuentes et al, 2021;. In this study, we focused on the mesoscale features with closed SSH or streamlines that can be detected with Eulerian methods.…”