ENSO and eddies on the southwest coast of Mexico

Details ENSO and eddies on the southwest coast of Mexico ENSO and eddies on the southwest coast of Mexico

Jan 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001georl..28...13z&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 28, Issue 1, p. 13-16

Physics

17

Oceanography: Physical: Eastern Boundary Currents, Oceanography: Physical: Eddies And Mesoscale Processes, Oceanography: Physical: El Nino, Oceanography: Physical: Fronts And Jets

Scientific paper

TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS-2 (T/ERS) sea surface height altimeter observations and the Naval Research Laboratory Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) are used to study the circulation along the southwest coast of Mexico. The results of this research indicate that strong El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm phase Kelvin waves (KW) destabilize the upper ocean circulation. The effect of ENSO appears as three distinct stages. First, a coastal jet characterized by strong vertical shear flow develops. Second, the shear flow strengthens, increasing its horizontal dimension and the amplitude of its oscillations. Finally, the jet becomes unstable and breaks into anticyclonic eddies, which separate from the coast and drift southwestward. The genesis and strengthening of the jet is due to the simultaneous occurrence of the poleward-flowing currents along the southwest coast of Mexico and the poleward circulation associated with ENSO downwelling KW.

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