Water exchange at the mouth of the Gulf of California

Warsh, C.; Warsh, K. L.

doi:10.1029/jc076i033p08098

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“… Mascarenhas et al [2004] used the same data set to obtain a mean and a seasonal description of the geostrophic currents at the entrance cross section. They found that in the mean there is ingoing flow on the mainland side and outgoing flow on the peninsula side, which is in agreement with previous descriptions based on less data [ Roden , 1964, 1971; Warsh and Warsh , 1971; Collins et al , 1997]. However, their data also revealed very large spatial variability, with alternating in‐going and out‐going jets.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 86%

SST, thermohaline structure, and circulation in the southern Gulf of California in June 2004 during the North American Monsoon Experiment

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

[1] The thermohaline structure, circulation, and heat fluxes in the Gulf of California entrance during June 2004 are described based on conductivity-temperature-depth and Lowering Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler data collected in a 14-day survey, supported by satellite data. The AVHRR images show extensive mesoscale structures in the region, the most striking being (1) a cool filament extending from the California Current domain and (2) a warm intrusion along the mainland shelf. On the warm side of the thermal front created by the cool filament there was a strong current flowing into the Gulf, with speeds up to 0.70 ms À1 in the surface; this current, which the SST images suggest was associated with a decaying eddy, carried 6 Sv into the Gulf. Associated with the second structure, there was an ingoing coastal current on the mainland shelf, with weak surface currents but with speeds $0.25 ms À1 at its core, between 70 and 200 m; this coastal current transported 2 Sv into the Gulf. The two ingoing currents appear to join inside the Gulf, forming a very strong (speeds 0.40-0.80 ms À1) narrow ($30 km) coastal current between the surface and 500 m depth. Changes in the thermohaline structure of the upper layers observed by repeat sampling of three cross sections were dominated by advection. However, it was found that the advective heat flux is very variable in space and time. For the period of observation it was estimated that the lateral heat input was 4.8 ± 3.0 Â 10 5 Wm À2 as estimated with LADCP currents and 5.7 ± 2.20 Â 10 5 Wm À2 with geostrophic velocities.

show abstract

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 86%

SST, thermohaline structure, and circulation in the southern Gulf of California in June 2004 during the North American Monsoon Experiment

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, they were considered real based on the following argument: the salinities observed at depths greater than 50 m agree with those reported hy other authors for this time of year (e.g. Warsh and Warsh, 1971;Roden, 1972) and, therefore, there is no reason to believe that the CTD would give erroneous readings only in the surface layer. The absolute values of the salinity in question may still not be accepted after this argument, but it is difficult to ignore that the relative values show-a surface layer, approximately 20 m wide, less saline than the subsurface ones.…”

Section: Discusionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Later, the investigations evolved and transformed the qualitative analysis into a quantitative solution, by obtaining the geostrophic flow (e.g. Warsh and Warsh, 1971;Roden, 1972;Rosas-Cota, 1977;Marinone and Ripa, 1988;Ripa and Marinone, 1989).…”

Section: Physical Oceanographicalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermohaline structure and geostrophic flow in the gulf of California, during 1992

Cruz

Gómez²,

Barajas³

1994

Cienc. Mar.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hydrographic data from two cruises, taken in February and August 1992, were used to describe the vertical thermohaline structure, the presence of water masses in the region of the mouth and central part of the Gulf of California, and meridional and zonal flows, respectively. The observations presented here show a marked thermal change between both seasons, with surface temperatures of about 19.00ºC in February and 32.00ºC in August. Thermal maxima (32.75ºC) and salinity minima (33.00) define a significant presence of Tropical water in the interior of the gulf in 1992, which suggests the occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon. This condition increased the intensity of the geostrophic flow and, in the central part of the gulf, velocities of 95 cm s–1 were recorded in February and of ll5 cm s–1 in August.

show abstract

“…The calculated infl ow and outfl ow were each 3.5 Sv. Warsh and Warsh (1971) estimated the water exchange based on geostrophic fl ow at the mouth of the gulf for July 1967 to be at least 3.25 Sv and possibly 3.65 Sv in each direction; and their estimate was between 2.57 and 3.5 Sv for February 1957and May 1959, respectively. Roden (1972 sampled hydrostations with close spacing (9 km) across the entrance to the gulf and produced other estimates of between 10 Sv (infl ow) and 12 Sv (outfl ow) for early December 1969.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opal in Gulf of California sediments as a tool to estimate the vertical component of water exchange between the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean

Alvarez-Borrego¹,

Giles-Guzmán²

2012

Botanica Marina

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water exchange between the Gulf of California and the Pacifi c has a signifi cant vertical component. Surface (0 -200 m) gulf water fl ows out into the Pacifi c, and deep (200 -600 m) water fl ows into the Gulf. We propose a biogeochemical method to estimate the vertical component of water exchange assuming a steady state for the concentration of nutrients in the Gulf and using the annual input of dissolved Si needed to support the production of opal accumulated in its sediments. An estimated average opal accumulation of (273.3 ± 6.8, mean ± SE)×10 9 mol SiO 2 year -1 for the whole Gulf was extracted from literature sources. Annual averages for H 4 SiO 4 , at the mouth of the Gulf and for the depth intervals 0 -200 m and 200 -600 m, were used to calculate the annual average vertical component of water exchange between the Gulf and the Pacifi c needed to balance this opal accumulation, i.e., 0.23 ± 0.02 Sv. This relatively low value is only ∼ 3 % of the whole average water exchange. This vertical component value was used to calculate the net annual nitrate input from the Pacifi c into the Gulf, and with the Redfi eld ratio it was transformed to new phytoplankton production for the whole Gulf [(10.67 ± 3.66)×10 9 kg C year -1 ].

show abstract

Water exchange at the mouth of the Gulf of California

Cited by 12 publications

References 2 publications

SST, thermohaline structure, and circulation in the southern Gulf of California in June 2004 during the North American Monsoon Experiment

SST, thermohaline structure, and circulation in the southern Gulf of California in June 2004 during the North American Monsoon Experiment

Thermohaline structure and geostrophic flow in the gulf of California, during 1992

Opal in Gulf of California sediments as a tool to estimate the vertical component of water exchange between the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About