Mesoscale Variability of Sea Surface Temperatures

Abstract

Abstract Results of an investigation of the nature of the mesoscale variability of sea surface temperature (SST) inthe upwelling zone off the central coast of Oregon are presented. A knowledge of SST mesoscale variability isimportant toward understanding the mesoscale air-sea interaction process in an upwelling zone. Almost-daily sea surface temperature data gathered by remote sensing techniques provided the basis for this investi-gation. These data were gathered over a period of 60 days during the COHO Project in summer 1973. In order to study the influence of wind forcing on the mesoscale SST field, wind data were gathered from ananemometer located at Newport, Ore. Some important results of this investigation are: 1) the daily SST fields respond rapidly to wind forcing;2) the three-week mean SST's tend to follow the large-scale bathymetry; and 3) identification of SST eddiesfrom day to day on daily perturbation (from the three-week means) maps is made difficult because of theexistence of strong horizont...