Mesoscale Spatial and Temporal Variations of Water Mass Characteristics in the California Current Region off Monterey Bay in 1973-1974.

Abstract

Continuous salinity and/or temperature profiles were made off the coast of Monterey Bay monthly between August 1973 and August 1974 and on a spatial grid finer than is conventionally used. A procedure is described to convert the data from analog to digital form, process these data on an IBM 360 computer, and print out the results by station for each month. The results show water mass features of small spatial scale detectable only because of the small grid spacing. A gyre or filament structure is suggested by the north to south variation between lines of stations. The extent of the area of the survey is insufficient to describe completely the water mass structure on both the eastern and western boundaries; however, the temporal variation in the observed water mass structure is consistent with the three oceanographic seasons described for the California Current system. Elements of relatively cold water and relatively warm water masses are identified in the area of survey. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA019283

Entities

People

  • Richard Edward Blumberg

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • California
  • Cold Water
  • Computers
  • Filaments
  • Salinity
  • Water
  • Water Masses

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Oceanography.

Technology Areas

  • Space