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gfdl on-line bibliography > 2005 citations
Sensitivity of coastal currents near Point Conception to forcing by three different winds: ECMWF, COAMPS, and Blended SSM/I-ECMWF-Buoy Wind
| Dong, C. and L-Y. Oey, 2005: Sensitivity of coastal currents near Point Conception to forcing by three different winds: ECMWF, COAMPS, and Blended SSM/I-ECMWF-Buoy Winds. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 35(7), 1229-1244. |
| Abstract: Previous observational and modeling studies have indicated the importance of finescale winds in determining the circulation near Point Conception in the Santa Maria Basin (SMB) and the Santa Barbara Channel (SBC), California. There has not been a systematic attempt, however, to analyze and quantify the sensitivity of the near-surface circulation to different wind data. Here, a regional circulation model of the SMB and SBC is driven using three wind datasets: the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF; 110 km 40%) is unidirectional (i.e., generally equatorward or poleward) and correlates well with the mode-1 wind (90%). The mode-2 current (20%) is cyclonic in the SBC and poleward inshore and equatorward offshore in the SMB; it correlates well with mode-1 sea level (70%), which suggests that mode-2 currents are driven by the pressure gradient. It is significant that neither mode-2 current nor mode-1 sea level correlates well with mode-1 wind stress curl (70%); rather, they correlate well with the time integral of the mode-1 wind stress curl. These conclusions support a previous theoretical idea that cyclonic circulation in the SBC and the inshore currents of the SMB are both driven by alongshore pressure setup induced by the time integral of the wind stress curl, rather than by the wind stress curl itself. This idea of a pressure setup is consistent with the differences found between the currents driven by COAMPS and SEB winds. |