New Jersey Shelf Research
A review of the latest cool images and events occuring on the New Jersey continental shelf, from the coast all the way out to the shelf break and beyond, as collected and interpreted by the Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Lab (RU COOL).
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
The Scream
May 18: An artists rendition of the Gulf Stream. The big eddy continues to be trimmed back in size. But whats that little red spot at 72W, 39.5N thats spinning in the clockwise direction? Its pulling some cold shelf water around itself. We'll have to go back into the individual images to see where that came from. We still have a band of warm water along the New Jersey shelf break. Coldest water from the Gulf of Maine region looks to be flowing south at midshelf.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
More Shots of the Great Warm RIng of 2006
Thought I would check around to see who else is picking up this big warm ring. Here is a picture from the Navy altimeter product. I always go to NRL first for altimetry. No warm core rings in the slope sea are anywhere near the height of the Great Warm Ring. The color scale of red to blue looks like a full meter of sea surface height. So its spinning with top speeds near 2 m/sec.
Warm Water at the Shelf Break Shoots South
May 10: Here's the longest range Codar map of the day. The jet at the shelf break is still heading south around 50 cm/sec.
May 10: Clouds are clearing in the southern half of the Mid-Atlantic Bight.
Tonight's imagery shows that the warm water from the Gulf Stream Ring continues to head rapidly south along the shelf break, and now extends south to the Chesapeake Bay.
Notes: The surface data is pretty amazing. The biggest warm core ring I've ever seen, followed by this significant transport along the entire shelf break nearly to Hatteras. Maybe it will reach there by tomorrow, and be entrained back in the Gulf Stream. Just taking the long way to Europe. George Forristall and I had a drifter that did something like that once back in 1983 or 4. The big question that keeps coming up is what does the subsurface look like in that shelf-slope jet. The Rutgers COOL group prepped an underwater glider today to find out. It just returned from the LaTTE Hudson River Plume experiment after being deployed and recovered by the Oceanus. We added a little more weight today for the extra salinity we'll encounter, and we'll deploy it tomorrow from Tuckerton before the storm hits thursday night or friday. It will take us a few days to fly it out there, but I think we'll get their in time to find out how these gliders can operate in the strong currents we see out there. We'll also see how deep that thing is.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Outer Shelf Region Awash
May 9: After the clear days over the weekend, clouds set in, winds picked up and so did the waves. Increases in wave height increase the range of the CODAR coverage. This one shows the strong currents in the shelf break front meandering their way down the shelf, likely leaving the out shelf region awash in warm water from the Great Warm Ring. Current velocities in the jet are running about 50 cm/sec.
The Shelf-Slope Jet Takes Over
May 5: The Great Warm Ring still extends fully across the slope water, from the Gulf Stream the shelf break. The warm water on the northeast side is heading down the shelf break front along the entire New Jersey shelf break. The surface shelf slope front is displaced significanly shoreward of the shelf break. There is a lot of hot water heading south fast. On the northern side, cold shelf water is being pulled off and transported clear across the slope and along the Gulf Stream north wall.
First Full Shot of the Great Warm Ring
April 25, 2006: This is the biggest warm core ring I have ever seen. I remember a similar great ring back in 1988 or 1989, but that one was long and narrow, and it broke up into three pieces. This one is nearly circular. It extends completely across the shelf from the Gulf Stream near 68W to the Shelf Break near 71W. Remember that warm water on the northeast side. Its a little farther north now and right up against the shelf break.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Meandering Gulf Stream
March 11: A typical meandering Gulf Stream before the start of the Great Warm Core Ring formation. The trough near 69W is going to deepen rapidly over the next several days. Maybe its interacting with a cold core ring to the south. Also, check out the warm water to the north of the crest just downstream of the trough.