Accession Number:

ADA455173

Title:

Interannual Variability of Tehuantepec Eddies

Descriptive Note:

Journal article (refereed)

Corporate Author:

NAVAL RESEARCH LAB STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS OCEANOGRAPHY DIV

Personal Author(s):

• Zamudio, Luis
• Hurlburt, Harley E.
• Metzger, E. J.
• Morey, Steven L.
• O'Brien, James J.
• Tilburg, Charles
• Zavala-Hidalgo, Jorge

Report Date:

2006-01-01

Pagination or Media Count:

23.0

Abstract:

TOPEXPoseidon satellite altimeter observations and the Naval Research Laboratory Layered Ocean Model simulations show interannual variability in the number intensity of Tehuantepec eddies off the Mexican southwest coast. Analysis of the results illustrates that downwelling coastally trapped waves, which are generated in the equatorial Pacific, play a crucial role in the modulation and generation of Tehuantepec eddies and a paradigm in which the generation and modulation of Tehuantepec eddies is not exclusively explained in terms of the strong and intermittent Tehuantepec wind events. In fact, the results show anticyclonic eddy formation during periods of calm Tehuantepec winds. That is specifically exemplified by the formation of two anticyclonic Tehuantepec eddies during a five-month period of weak Gulf of Tehuantepec winds during summer of 1997. Furthermore, the satellite-observed and NLOM-simulated proliferation of Tehuantepec eddies during El Nino years is explained by the corresponding increase in downwelling coastally trapped waves and a lack of increases in the number and strength of Tehuantepec wind events during El Nino years.

Descriptors:

• *OBSERVATION
• *SATELLITE IMAGERY
• SIMULATION
• EQUATORIAL REGIONS
• REPRINTS
• INTENSITY
• WAVES
• ANTICYCLONES
• SEASONS
• MODULATION
• COASTAL REGIONS
• OCEAN CURRENTS
• MODELS

Subject Categories:

• Atmospheric Physics
• Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
• Unmanned Spacecraft

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE