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The Dynamics of the Mississippi River Plume and Interactions with Coastal and Offshore Flows in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Rafael V. Schiller, Villy H. Kourafalou, George Halliwell, Patrick J. Hogan, Ole Martin Smedstad
University of Miami / RSMAS
(Abstract received 04/28/2009 for session X)
ABSTRACT
The shelf and shelfbreak regions in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGoM) are subject to intense interactions with offshore flows (Loop Current features and offshore eddies). These interactions are extremely important to the dynamics of the Mississippi River (MR) plume, which can be entrained by such features and transported to remote regions. In this study, the HYCOM model was employed in a high resolution (1/50°) domain of the NGoM region, which is forced by realistic atmospheric fields (COAMPS 27km) and is nested within the data assimilative 1/25° GOM-HYCOM model. The objective is to simulate the NGoM coastal flows and the coastal to offshore interactions, with focus on the MR plume dynamics. Results demonstrate that complex interactions determine the fate of MR waters. Favorable wind events (preferably in the summer) may transport plume waters along the rim of the DeSoto Caynon, where interaction with offshore eddies is enhanced. Smaller scale, shelfbreak eddies locally entrain plume waters, whereas mesoscale eddies are able to effectively remove the buoyant plume to the offshore GoM when they impinge against the shelfbreak. The impact of those features decreases over the shelf and to the west of the Delta, where wind-driven, along-shelf transport of plume waters prevails.
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2009 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida Jume 1 - 3, 2009