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Simulating the variability of Florida Current frontal eddies
HeeSook Kang and Villy H. Kourafalou
RSMAS
(Abstract received 05/08/2009 for session X)
ABSTRACT
The South Florida coastal seas include shelf areas and shallow water bodies around ecologically fragile environments and Marine Protected Areas, such as Florida Bay, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and the Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve. A high resolution (1/100 deg) of FKEYS-HYCOM has been embedded within the data assimilative GOM-HYCOM (1/25 deg) model to ensure the proper representations of the complex South Florida coastal system. Eddies that travel along the Loop Current/Florida Current front are known to be an important mechanism for the interaction of onshore and offshore flows. The high resolution FKEYS simulations reveal both mescoscale and sub-mesoscale eddy passages during a targeted 4-year simulation period (2004-2007), forced with high resolution/high frequency atmospheric forcing. Those eddies are validated with the SeaWiFS chlorophyll-a images. Mesoscale features are mostly associated with onshore-offshore meandering of the Florida Current as well as topographic constrain. The FKYES-HYCOM is capable of simulating submesoscale eddies off the Biscayne Bay which can be captured with high frequency radar and cannot be captured by the outer low resolution model. Eddies also enable upwelling of cooler waters along the shelf area. Observed monthly temperature distributions along the transect of 25.5N confirm the seasonal variability of cooler water along the coastal area. Exchanging waters between the Florida Bay and the Atlantic side of Keys happens through the Keys passages represented properly in FKEYS-HYCOM.
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2009 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida Jume 1 - 3, 2009