TY - JOUR
T1 - Interannual Variability of the Mid-Atlantic Bight Cold Pool
AU - Chen, Zhuomin
AU - Curchitser, Enrique N.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the Editor Marjorie Friedrichs and two anonymous reviewers. This work was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through Awards NOAA‐NA‐15OAR4310133 and NOAA‐NA‐13OAR4830233 and the National Science Foundation Awards OCE‐1049088, OCE‐1419584, and OCE‐0961545. The authors appreciate computational resources provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) used for running the numerical model used for this work. Some simulations and analysis were also carried out at the computational facilities of the Curchitser Lab—the Earth System Modeling Laboratory at Rutgers University. The authors also appreciate communications and discussions with Steven Lentz, Young‐Oh Kwon, and Ke Chen about the observational data sets, model‐observation comparison, and the impact of the heat budget terms on interannual variations of the Cold Pool temperature. We also thank Michael Alexander for his thoughtful comments and suggestions.
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the Editor Marjorie Friedrichs and two anonymous reviewers. This work was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through Awards NOAA-NA-15OAR4310133 and NOAA-NA-13OAR4830233 and the National Science Foundation Awards OCE-1049088, OCE-1419584, and OCE-0961545. The authors appreciate computational resources provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) used for running the numerical model used for this work. Some simulations and analysis were also carried out at the computational facilities of the Curchitser Lab—the Earth System Modeling Laboratory at Rutgers University. The authors also appreciate communications and discussions with Steven Lentz, Young-Oh Kwon, and Ke Chen about the observational data sets, model-observation comparison, and the impact of the heat budget terms on interannual variations of the Cold Pool temperature. We also thank Michael Alexander for his thoughtful comments and suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - The Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Cold Pool is a bottom-trapped, cold (temperature below 10°C) and fresh (practical salinity below 34) water mass that is isolated from the surface by the seasonal thermocline and is located over the midshelf and outer shelf of the MAB. The interannual variability of the Cold Pool with regard to its persistence time, volume, temperature, and seasonal along-shelf propagation is investigated based on a long-term (1958–2007) high-resolution regional model of the northwest Atlantic Ocean. A Cold Pool Index is defined and computed in order to quantify the strength of the Cold Pool on the interannual timescale. Anomalous strong, weak, and normal years are categorized and compared based on the Cold Pool Index. A detailed quantitative study of the volume-averaged heat budget of the Cold Pool region (CPR) has been examined on the interannual timescale. Results suggest that the initial temperature and abnormal warming/cooling due to advection are the primary drivers in the interannual variability of the near-bottom CPR temperature anomaly during stratified seasons. The long persistence of temperature anomalies from winter to summer in the CPR also suggests a potential for seasonal predictability.
AB - The Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Cold Pool is a bottom-trapped, cold (temperature below 10°C) and fresh (practical salinity below 34) water mass that is isolated from the surface by the seasonal thermocline and is located over the midshelf and outer shelf of the MAB. The interannual variability of the Cold Pool with regard to its persistence time, volume, temperature, and seasonal along-shelf propagation is investigated based on a long-term (1958–2007) high-resolution regional model of the northwest Atlantic Ocean. A Cold Pool Index is defined and computed in order to quantify the strength of the Cold Pool on the interannual timescale. Anomalous strong, weak, and normal years are categorized and compared based on the Cold Pool Index. A detailed quantitative study of the volume-averaged heat budget of the Cold Pool region (CPR) has been examined on the interannual timescale. Results suggest that the initial temperature and abnormal warming/cooling due to advection are the primary drivers in the interannual variability of the near-bottom CPR temperature anomaly during stratified seasons. The long persistence of temperature anomalies from winter to summer in the CPR also suggests a potential for seasonal predictability.
KW - Cold Pool
KW - Mid-Atlantic Bight
KW - continental shelf
KW - interannual variability
KW - near-bottom temperature
KW - temperature balance
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U2 - 10.1029/2020JC016445
DO - 10.1029/2020JC016445
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089890142
SN - 2169-9275
VL - 125
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
IS - 8
M1 - e2020JC016445
ER -