The Gulf Stream's Western Surface Front in the South Atlantic Bight, 1976-78: Preliminary Results from an Empirical Orthogonal Function Analysis,
Abstract
Preliminary results from a study of 105 weekly Experimental Ocean Frontal Analysis Charts, produced by the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office between 2 June 1976 and 31 May 1978, are reported. Basic statistics of the excursions of the front (as measured from a 64-week mean axis extending from Cape Canaveral to Cape Hatteras) show appreciable changes between year-long subsets of the data. Estimates of standard deviations as well as extreme of the frontal amplitudes are presented. Empirical Orthogonal Function Analysis has provided 6 components of the front which account for 85% of the original variance. Their associated eigenvectors offer a more compact assessment of the spatial variability and are used to generate time series whose spectra contain significant peaks in frequency bands centered near periods of 2.3, 3.2, 4.4, 6.0 and 17 weeks. A yearly band seems also present in the first five principal components. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADP001044
Entities
People
- Leonidas S. Cordova
Organizations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill