Decay of a Shoaling Gulf Stream Cyclonic Ring

Abstract

An entrainment and diffusion model has been applied to successive observations of a decaying Gulf Stream cyclonic ring to investigate changes in the streamline pattern as the ring moved from deep water onto Blake Plateau. Entrainment of water into the ring core is the dominant feature in each field of streamlines. The decay process measured in terms of the time required to replace the ring volume indicates an approximately linear decrease of renewal time as the ring moves into shallow water.