Show simple item record

contributor authorPrater, Mark D.
contributor authorRossby, Tom
date accessioned2017-06-09T14:53:37Z
date available2017-06-09T14:53:37Z
date copyright1999/08/01
date issued1999
identifier issn0022-3670
identifier otherams-29097.pdf
identifier urihttp://onlinelibrary.yabesh.ir/handle/yetl/4166286
description abstractA hypothesis is presented that the original salt lens, or ?meddy,? observed off the Bahamas in the fall of 1976 may have been formed, not near the Mediterranean outflow, but instead in the vicinity of the northwest corner (51°N, 43°W) of the North Atlantic Current. An eddy was observed near the northwest corner by an isopycnal RAFOS float deployed during the 1993?95 North Atlantic Current Experiment, and had nearly identical temperature/salinity properties as those of the Bahamas lens. Hydrographic evidence of thick homogeneous layers with similar properties near the northwest corner suggest a possible formation mechanism by which surface eddies containing warm and saline waters are cooled and subducted. A plausible scenario is made whereby a northwest corner eddy might be advected southward in the Newfoundland Basin by the flow around the high pressure ridge east of the North Atlantic Current and then enter the recirculation gyre immediately south of the Gulf Stream. Such an eddy could be advected to the site of the Bahamas lens in just three years, perhaps much more quickly than an eddy of Mediterranean origin and without encountering the topographic barrier of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This conclusion is ironic because the Bahamas lens is considered the first observation of an eddy of Mediterranean origin, and led to the coining of the term ?meddy.?
publisherAmerican Meteorological Society
titleAn Alternative Hypothesis for the Origin of the “Mediterranean” Salt Lens Observed off the Bahamas in the Fall of 1976
typeJournal Paper
journal volume29
journal issue8
journal titleJournal of Physical Oceanography
identifier doi10.1175/1520-0485(1999)029<2103:AAHFTO>2.0.CO;2
journal fristpage2103
journal lastpage2109
treeJournal of Physical Oceanography:;1999:;Volume( 029 ):;issue: 008
contenttypeFulltext


Files in this item

Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record