Wind-driven coastal generation of annual mesoscale eddy activity in the California Current

Abstract

Two candidate sources for the generation of mesoscale eddy activity in the California Current are local baroclinic instability and/or the wind stress adjacent to the coast. The latter constitutes remote forcing, with eddy activity propagating westward from the coast into the California Current via Rossby wave dynamics. In this study, two wind-driven models are utilized to test the relative significance of these two sources. -from Authors