Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
2020
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Volume
125
First Page
e2020JC01636
Abstract
A decade (2007–2016) of hourly 6-km-resolution maps of the surface currents across the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) generated by a regional scale High Frequency Radar network are used to reveal new insights into the spatial patterns of the annual and seasonal mean surface flows. Across the 10-year time series, temporal means and interannual and intra-annual variability are used to quantify the variability of spatial surface current patterns. The 10-year annual mean surface flows are weaker and mostly cross-shelf near the coast, increasing in speed and rotating to more alongshore directions near the shelfbreak, and increasing in speed and rotating to flow off-shelf in the southern MAB. The annual mean surface current pattern is relatively stable year to year compared to the hourly variations within a year. The 10-year seasonal means exhibit similar current patterns, with winter and summer more cross-shore while spring and fall transitions are more alongshore. Fall and winter mean speeds are larger and correspond to when mean winds are stronger and cross-shore. Summer mean currents are weakest and correspond to a time when the mean wind opposes the alongshore flow. Again, intra-annual variability is much greater than interannual, with the fall season exhibiting the most interseasonal variability in the surface current patterns. The extreme fall seasons of 2009 and 2011 are related to extremes in the wind and river discharge events caused by different persistent synoptic meteorological conditions, resulting in more or less rapid fall transitions from stratified summer to well-mixed winter conditions.
DOI
doi: 10.1029/2020JC016368
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Roarty, Hugh; Glenn, Scott; et al; Wang, Haixing; and Gong, Donglai, Annual and Seasonal Surface Circulation Over the Mid-Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf Derived From a Decade of High Frequency Radar Observations (2020). Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125, e2020JC01636.
doi: 10.1029/2020JC016368
