Direct Observations of Along-Isopycnal Upwelling and Diapycnal Velocity at a Shelfbreak Front John A

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2004 Direct Observations of Along-Isopycnal Upwelling and Diapycnal Velocity at a Shelfbreak Front John A. Barth

Dave Hebert University of Rhode Island

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Citation/Publisher Attribution Barth, J.A., D. Hebert, A.C. Dale, and D.S. Ullman, 2004: Direct Observations of Along-Isopycnal Upwelling and Diapycnal Velocity at a Shelfbreak Front. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 34, 543–565. doi: 10.1175/2514.1 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1175/2514.1

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School of Oceanography at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors John A. Barth, Dave Hebert, Andrew C. Dale, and David S. Ullman

This article is available at DigitalCommons@URI: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/337 MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 543

Direct Observations of Along-Isopycnal Upwelling and Diapycnal Velocity at a Shelfbreak Front*

JOHN A. BARTH College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

DAVE HEBERT Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island

ANDREW C. DALE College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

DAVID S. ULLMAN Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island

(Manuscript received 18 November 2002, in ®nal form 2 September 2003)

ABSTRACT By mapping the three-dimensional density ®eld while simultaneously tracking a subsurface, isopycnal ¯oat, direct observations of upwelling along a shelfbreak front were made on the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank. The thermohaline and bio-optical ®elds were mapped using a towed undulating vehicle, and horizontal velocity was measured with a shipboard acoustic Doppler current pro®ler. A subsurface isopycnal ¯oat capable of measuring diapycnal ¯ow past the ¯oat was acoustically tracked from the ship. The ¯oat was released near the foot of the shelfbreak front (95±100-m isobath) and moved 15 km seaward as it rose from 80 to 50 m along the sloping frontal isopycnals over a 2-day deployment. The ¯oat's average westward velocity was 0.09 m s Ϫ1, while a drifter drogued at 15 m released at the same location moved westward essentially alongfront at 0.18 m sϪ1. The ¯oat measured strong downward vertical velocities (in excess of 0.02 m s Ϫ1) associated with propagation of internal tidal solibores in the onbank direction from their formation near the shelf break. The ¯oat measured large upward vertical velocities (in excess of 0.001 m s Ϫ1 Ӎ 100 m dayϪ1) as the pycnocline rebounded adiabatically after the passage of the internal tide solibore. The directly measured mean along-isopycnal vertical velocity was 17.5 m dayϪ1. Intense mixing events lasting up to 2 hours were observed in the shelfbreak front at the boundary between cold, fresh shelf water and warm, salty slope water. Diapycnal velocities of up to 3 ϫ 10Ϫ3 msϪ1 were measured, implying a diapycnal thermal diffusivity as large as 10 Ϫ2 m2 sϪ1, indicative of strong mixing events in this coastal front.

1. Introduction centimeters per second as compared with 0.1±1.0 m sϪ1. This makes measurement of the secondary ¯ow very Along-isopycnal motion can consist of two compo- challenging with, for example, an Eulerian sampling nents. The stronger primary ¯ow, often in geostrophic technique like shipboard acoustic Doppler current pro- or nearly geostrophic balance with sloping frontal iso- ®ling. Surface Lagrangian drifters or constant-pressure pycnals, is normal to the pressure gradient. A weaker ¯oats will also fail to follow the secondary circulation secondary circulation ¯owing in the plane at right angles as it moves along sloping isopycnals. to the primary ¯ow may also exist. Near strong coastal The secondary ¯ow, although weak, is important for ocean fronts, the secondary ¯ow is usually at least an the maintenance or degradation of the density structure order of magnitude smaller that the primary ¯ow, a few associated with a coastal front and which supports the primary ¯ow. The secondary circulation can also carry * Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics Contribution Number 407. biological material (e.g., phytoplankton, suspended de- tritus, or sediment) and chemical properties (e.g., nu- trients, trace metals) along the frontal interface even Corresponding author address: Dr. John A. Barth, College of Oce- anic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 104 Ocean sometimes from regions of insuf®cient light for growth Admin Bldg., Corvallis, OR 97331-5503. up into the euphotic zone. E-mail: [email protected] In this paper, we report on the direct observation of

᭧ 2004 American Meteorological Society 544 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34 secondary circulation near a shelfbreak front using a trajectory, but we measure this deviation quantitatively Lagrangian subsurface ¯oat. The time-varying, three- (details below). dimensional subsurface hydrographic and velocity ®elds This paper is organized as follows. The measurement are sampled with high resolution using a towed undu- techniques and data analysis methods are described in lating vehicle and a shipboard acoustic Doppler current the next section. Then results from a ¯oat deployment pro®ler (ADCP), respectively. The results presented near a relatively straight, two-dimensional shelfbreak here are part of a larger effort to understand cross-front front are reported. The ¯oat and SeaSoar observations exchange on Georges Bank using a towed vehicle and are used to describe the mean shelfbreak front and jet ¯oats both on the northern (Dale et al. 2003; Ullman et structure, the passage of internal tide solibores, and dia- al. 2003) and southern ¯anks of the bank. pycnal and along-isopycnal mixing events. Then, this Previous studies have used tracers to infer the sec- is contrasted with a second deployment when the front ondary circulation near a shelfbreak front. These include was considerably more three-dimensional. Last, a dis- analysis of a purposeful dye release (Houghton and Vis- cussion and conclusion section follows. beck 1998), tracking of a subsurface signature of suspended particles (Barth et al. 1998), and tracing of low 2. Data and analysis methods strati®cation water from out of the bottom boundary layer (Pickart 2000). The latter two studies also used We used a combination of high-spatial resolution, directly measured across-front convergent horizontal three-dimensional mapping using a towed undulating velocities to infer the vertical component of the sec- vehicle, an acoustically tracked subsurface isopycnal ondary circulation. Estimates of the along-isopycnal ¯oat, and a satellite-tracked surface drifter to study the vertical velocity on the shoreward side of the shelfbreak shelfbreak region on the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank front south of Cape Cod in the Middle Atlantic Bight in June 1999. from the dye and suspended particle analyses range from 4to11mdayϪ1. Pickart (2000) estimated an average a. Three-dimensional mapping upwelling velocity of 23 m dayϪ1 by integrating the continuity equation and assuming that one-half of the From 14 June to 1 July 1999, hydrographic and bio± cross-stream convergence upwelled while the other one- optical measurements were made from the towed undulating vehicle SeaSoar (Pollard 1986). SeaSoar was half fed a growing alongstream ¯ow due to isobath con- towed using a hydrographic cable and pro®led from the vergence. sea surface to 110 m over deep water and to within 10 Modeling studies predict the existence of along-iso- m of the bottom over the bank. Cycle time in deep water pycnal upwelling on the shoreward side of an idealized was about 6.5 minutes resulting in surface points being shelfbreak front (Gawarkiewicz and Chapman 1992; separated by 1.3 km at the ship's typical 7 kt (3.6 m Chapman and Lentz 1994). Convergence in the bottom sϪ1) tow speed. Horizontal separation between pro®les boundary layer due to reversal of the offshore Ekman at middepth is half this value. Cycles over the shallow transport accompanying the primary alongshore ¯ow bank, 0±70±0 m, took 2 minutes, and so surface points causes upwelling into the interior. Model predictions of were separated by 420 m. Bottom avoidance was ac- Ϫ1 4 m day vertical velocity are in general agreement complished by using R/V Oceanus' 3.5-kHz Knudsen with the inferred ¯ows from tracers. echosounder as input to the SeaSoar ¯ight control soft- We use a neutrally buoyant ¯oat to track water parcel ware. motion near the shelfbreak front during June 1999 on The SeaSoar was equipped with a Seabird 911ϩ con- the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank. The ¯oat's position ductivity±temperature±depth (CTD) instrument with is determined acoustically and it measures pressure, pumped, dual temperature±conductivity sensors point- temperature, and ¯ow past the ¯oat, that is, the dia- ing forward through the nose of SeaSoar. Details of how pycnal velocity (details below). The three-dimensional the CTD data are processed can be found in Barth et hydrographic, bio-optical and velocity context for the al. (2000b). Fluorescence was measured with a WET- ¯oat is provided by towing a SeaSoar near the subsur- Labs FlashPak ¯uorometer (460-nm excitation, 695-nm face ¯oat from a vessel equipped with a shipboard emission) mounted on the upper tail ®n of SeaSoar. For ADCP. D'Asaro (2003) used a subsurface isopycnal making horizontal maps and vertical sections, the mea- ¯oat to measure the vertical pro®les of hydrographic surements were ®rst averaged vertically to 2-dbar bins (and, in some cases, bio-optical) properties by occa- and horizontally to 1.25 km. A complete set of the sionally operating the ¯oat in a pro®ler mode. Our ap- SeaSoar maps and vertical sections can be found in proach has the advantage that the isopycnal ¯oat stays Barth et al. (2000a). with the water parcel, but with the added cost associated Horizontal water velocity was measured using a 150- with measuring the subsurface vertical pro®les from a kHz narrowband RDI shipboard acoustic Doppler cur- ship. A particular water parcel may change its density rent pro®ler and is reported in Ullman et al. (2000). The through diapycnal mixing, a process which causes an ensemble averaging interval was 150 s and the pulse isopycnal ¯oat to separate from the true water parcel and bin lengths were both set to 8 m. Absolute velocity MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 545

FIG. 1. Satellite sea surface temperature (ЊC) on 20 Jun 1999. The SeaSoar sampling grid is shown as thick black lines; isobaths are in meters. was calculated using ship's velocity derived from bot- nal ¯oat and a 15-m drogued drifter (see section 2c) tom tracking when available or from GPS P-Code nav- were released. The subsurface ¯oat was tracked acous- igation data. An Ashtech 3DF attitudinal GPS system tically while towing SeaSoar on a butter¯y pattern ex- was used to correct for gyrocompass variations. tending 20±30 km across the bank and 10 km along- SeaSoar was towed across the southern ¯ank of bank. The pattern was repeated in place or shifted to Georges Bank in several basic patterns. The ®rst was a the west depending on the location of the ¯oat. The ``radiator'' pattern consisting of 45-km-long legs ori- butter¯y pattern took approximately 6.5±8 h to complete ented roughly perpendicular to the local isobaths (Fig. depending on what phase of the tide it was started on 1). Cross-bank lines were separated by 7.5 km for a and was repeated seven times before recovering the total along-bank coverage of 30 km. Each cross-bank drifter and ¯oat. line took approximately 3.4 h to complete depending on the phase of the tide. This pattern was centered near b. Advection with mean and tidal ¯ow the 95-m isobath and sampled the shelfbreak front. After de®ning the local hydrography, bio-optical, and velocity To create synoptic maps, the 2-dbar, 1.25-km aver- ®elds around the shelfbreak front, a subsurface isopyc- aged vertical pro®les from a SeaSoar ``radiator'' pattern 546 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34 were advected to a common time using a time-inde- recorded temperature every 30 s with a resolution of pendent, horizontally and vertically dependent mean approximately 0.15ЊC. The time constant of the logger ¯ow and a time- and horizontally varying, depth-in- is approximately 1 min. dependent tidal velocity ®eld. The mean velocity ®eld The subsurface ¯oat, the Coastal Ocean Lagrangian was obtained by referencing each cross-bank section to (COOL) ¯oat (Prater et al. 2003, unpublished manu- the location of the shelf break, here de®ned as the 130- script, hereinafter PHRF) was developed to measure dia- m isobath, and then averaging the sections together. The pycnal velocities (a measure of diapycnal mixing) in the tidal model consisted of a least squares ®t of the steady coastal ocean. The COOL ¯oat incorporates the features plus two semidiurnal (M 2 and S 2) and two diurnal (K1 of the f/h ¯oat (Rossby et al. 1994) and an isobaric and O1) tidal constituents to the vertically averaged ship- vertical current meter (Voorhis 1968) that has been re- board ADCP velocities collected during the 16 days the ferred to as the VCM. Glass was used for the isopycnal ship was on site and from a 15-day cruise on the R/V ¯oat since it has a very small thermal expansion co- Endeavor (16±30 June 1999) in the same region. In ef®cient. Thus, the ¯oat will remain on the same density addition, moored velocity data from an array in the mid- surface even if the temperature and salinity of the water dle of the study region (R. Schlitz 2002, personal com- changes but its density does not. If a water parcel is munication) were also used in the analysis. The spatial displaced vertically, it will either expand or contract ®t, following Candela et al. (1992), used a second-order because of the change in pressure and not change its polynomial for the steady velocity and ®rst-order poly- potential density. Since the glass ¯oat is less compress- nomials (i.e., planes) for the four tidal constituents. The ible than seawater, it will not follow this water parcel. model ®t is very similar to an analysis using all available Therefore, a compressee is added to the ¯oat to make shipboard ADCP data from southern ¯ank Georges the ¯oat's compressibility be that of seawater. Bank Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) The VCMs are isobaric ¯oats equipped with vanes. cruises (C. Flagg 2002, also see online at http:// Water ¯owing past these vanes rotates the ¯oat and, www.oasdpo.bnl.gov/mosaic/globec), but we choose to based on this rotation rate, the vertical velocity of the use our ®t because it better represents the tidal velocities water can be calculated. Due to the isobaric nature of in the smaller geographic area of interest here. When these ¯oats, they mainly measure the vertical velocity individual SeaSoar cross-bank vertical sections are com- of internal waves. The COOL ¯oat, however, being is- pared with subsurface ¯oat positions, the 2-dbar, 1.25- opycnal, will move up and down with the internal km averaged pro®les making up that section are all ad- waves. An example of this behavior will be shown later vected to the time of the ¯oat ®x using the tidal ®t. and is detailed in PHRF.The COOL ¯oat's pressure case Using a root-mean-square difference between the ob- is 2.2 m long and 0.095 m in diameter. Midway along served depth-averaged velocity and the tidal ®t over the its axis, eight vanes extending 0.34 m from the ¯oat's period of the ®rst ¯oat deployment of 0.05 m sϪ1, and axis are oriented 15Њ from the horizontal. The rotation the maximum time interval between the closest SeaSoar of the ¯oat is measured with a Precision Navigation pro®le and the ¯oat of 1000 s, we estimate that the error Vector 2ϫ compass. A vertical velocity measured from in repositioning the SeaSoar pro®les is less than about such an isopycnal platform (i.e., by rotation of the ¯oat) 50 m. This is far less than the error in positioning the is a diapycnal velocity. For further discussion of dia- ¯oat acoustically (see next section). pycnal velocity, see McDougall (1984). Note that a diapycnal velocity is used to effect diapycnal mixing in isopycnal-coordinate circulation models (Bleck et al. c. Subsurface ¯oat and surface drifter 1992). A satellite-tracked surface drifter and an acoustically The COOL ¯oat samples temperature and pressure tracked subsurface ¯oat were used to track ¯uid parcel every 64 s. There was no conductivity sensor on this trajectories in the vicinity of the shelfbreak front on the version of the COOL ¯oat. Since the equation of state southern ¯ank of Georges Bank. The surface drifter for the ¯oat is known, as is its temperature and pressure, (Brightwaters Instrument Corporation Model 115) had the salinity of the water the ¯oat is embedded in can a 10-m-long drogue centered at a depth of 15 m. This be determined (Boebel et al. 1995). During the initial drifter obtains its GPS location every 30 min and trans- sinking phase of the ¯oat, the compass heading is re- mits the last seven positions via Argos every 90 s. On corded every 8 s; after this period, it is recorded every the ship, a GONIO Argos receiver was used to intercept 64 s. The small onboard memory of the present ¯oat the Argos messages when the drifter was within range limited missions to less than 2.5 days with these sam- and a computer attached to the receiver displayed the pling rates. At the end of the mission, the ¯oat released drifter positions. Argos messages from the drifter were its drop weight, the compressee, and surfaced. The ¯oat also transmitted to the ship via twice-daily e-mail trans- was recovered and the data downloaded. fers. The surface drifter was equipped with a nighttime Tests of a prototype (Rajamony et al. 1996) and sev- ¯asher to aid their recovery. Self-contained ONSET eral short deployments of the COOL ¯oat (Hebert et al. temperature loggers were placed at nominal depths of 1997) showed that the rotation rate of the ¯oat was 0, 5, 10, 13.3, 16.7, and 20 m on the drifter. The loggers linearly proportional to the vertical velocity past the MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 547

¯oat. The vanes of the ¯oat appear to act like the threads of a screw; the lower the pitch, the more rotation of the ¯oat for the same vertical velocity. Since there are no moving parts, there is almost no lower velocity limit that the ¯oat can measure. However, with a compass accuracy of 2Њ, samples collected every 64 s limited the accuracy of vertical velocities to approximately 0.07 mm sϪ1. In determining the vertical velocity and water displacement, the absolute rotation of the ¯oat must be determined. For most of the time series, the change in compass heading between adjacent samples was less than 90Њ. On occasion, the change was greater than 120Њ. For those cases, the adjacent headings were used to determine which way to rotate the ¯oat. In general, it was chosen to rotate the ¯oat in the direction of smallest rotation. Therefore, it is possible that the vertical velocity is underestimated (a 180Њ change in 64 s gives a vertical velocity of 6 mm sϪ1) at that time and in the opposite direction. The COOL ¯oat has a 12-kHz pinger that is triggered precisely every 8 s. This allow us to track the ¯oat through triangulation from the ship. The acoustic signal was received by the ship's hydrophone and displayed on a line scan recorder (LSR). A second precision sound source located on the ship was also recorded by the LSR. The range of the ¯oat from the ship was determined by the time interval between the two sources and assuming a sound speed of 1500 m sϪ1. The position of the ¯oat was determined at each closest approach of the ¯oat by the ship. The position of the ship and the range to the ¯oat at this time and several minutes before and after were used to determine the ¯oat's position. There is ambiguity in the possible ¯oat position from this calculation. However, with multiple passes in several hours, it is possible to choose the right position. The error in horizontal ¯oat positioning is estimated as 200 m. Internal waves contribute ``noise'' of about 5 m in the vertical, the measured peak-to-peak wave amplitude, to an instantaneous ¯oat ®x. For plotting ¯oat trajectories, the raw subsurface ¯oat ¯uxes are ®t using a model consisting of a slowly varying current and a

time-varying M2 tidal ¯ow, both of which are spatially independent.

3. Results a. Mean ®eld and internal tide solibores During the 17-day cruise to the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank in June 1999 the winds were generally weak with speeds rarely exceeding 10 m sϪ1 and more FIG. 2. Maps at 39-m depth of (a) temperature (ЊC), (b) salinity, Ϫ1 and (c) density (kg mϪ3) measured from SeaSoar on 20±21 Jun 1999. typically5ms or less (Hebert et al. 1999). A satellite The ®elds have been rotated 30Њ clockwise and measurements along sea surface temperature image from 20 June 1999 lines A±E have been advected with the tidal and mean velocities to showed typical cold water over Georges Bank and warm the time of the ®rst observation at the northern end of line A. water over and seaward of the continental slope (Fig. 1). A warm-core Gulf Stream ring was located to the southeast of the study region and was clearly interacting with water on the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank as 548 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 3. A vertical section from the middle line (line C) of the shelfbreak front SeaSoar grid sampled from 0155 to 0510 UTC 21 Jun 1999: (a) temperature (ЊC), (b) salinity, (c) density (kg mϪ3), (d) chlorophyll ¯uorescence (V), (e) along-bank velocity (m sϪ1) with positive values toward 60Њ true, and (f) buoyancy frequency (cph). The thick white curves are the 25.2 and 25.8 kg mϪ3 density contours. The arrows beneath (c) indicate locations where density pro®les were extracted for use in calculating internal wave propagation speeds. evident by a streamer of cold, bank water being pulled to the start time of the grid using both the mean ¯ow off and around the anticyclonic warm-core ring. A series and modeled tidal velocity ®eld. Because the mean ve- of three-dimensional mapping activities and Lagrangian locity ®eld consists of a 0.30 m sϪ1 surface intensi®ed drifter and ¯oat tracking experiments were carried out jet centered on the 100-m isobath (not shown), the ad- both at the location of the tidal mixing front, around vected measurement locations are compressed in the the 60-m isobath, and at the shelfbreak front centered along-bank direction (Fig. 2). Line E was slightly de- around the 90±100-m isobaths. In this paper, only results layed relative to line D because of a needed SeaSoar from the shelfbreak front will be reported. repair. The tide is relatively weak (0.4 m sϪ1 or less) at Before releasing a subsurface ¯oat in the vicinity of this location during neap tides as compared with tidal the shelfbreak front, a 2-day ``radiator'' grid survey was velocities on the northern ¯ank of Georges Bank, which conducted from 20 to 21 June during a period of low distort SeaSoar grids more signi®cantly (Dale et al. wind speed (Ͻ5msϪ1). As described previously, each 2003). 2-dbar, 1.25-km, averaged vertical pro®le was advected The temperature, salinity, and density anomaly (here- MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 549

FIG. 4. Vertical sections sampled on 21 Jun 1999 from lines C (0155±0510 UTC; lower two left panels) and D (0550± 0903 UTC; right panels) of the shelfbreak front SeaSoar grid: (a) mean temperature (ЊC) from all ®ve cross-bank sections, (b) temperature anomaly (ЊC) from line C, (c) cross-bank velocity (m s Ϫ1) with positive values toward 330Њ true from line C, (d) temperature (ЊC) from line D, (e) temperature anomaly (ЊC) from line D, and (f) cross-bank velocity (m s Ϫ1) from line D. inafter, ``density'') ®elds at 39 m obtained from this survey grid (line C) is shown in Fig. 3. A warm, salty synoptic map and rotated 30Њ clockwise from an east± layer in the upper 20 m is found over the center part of north coordinate system are shown in Fig. 2. The the cross-bank section consistent with the satellite tem- SeaSoar pro®le in the southwest corner is arbitrarily perature ®eld (Fig. 1). The presence of relatively cool chosen as the origin of the rotated coordinate system. and fresh upper-layer water offshore of about the 120- A shelfbreak density front separating cold, fresh bank m isobath is due to mesoscale variability introduced by water from warm, salty slope water runs from NE to the presence of a warm-core ring to the southeast of the SW crossing the local isobaths (a front following the study region. At depth, the shelfbreak front separating isobaths would parallel the x axis in this rotated coor- cold, fresh shelf water from warm, salty slope water is dinate system). The warm, salty, and light anomalies readily apparent. The foot of the front, approximated onbank from the shelfbreak front, the best example of by the 26.15 kg mϪ3 density contour, is between the 90- which is located at 15 km in the x direction and 20 km m and 100-m isobaths. The ``cold pool'' is located within the y direction, are created by strong local depressions in 60 m of the bottom and onbank of the shelfbreak in the upper layer depth caused by onbank propagation front. A plot of buoyancy frequency (Fig. 3f) shows a of the internal tide (discussed in more detail below). strong pycnocline at 20±25 m and the shelfbreak front. A typical cross-bank section from the center of the Along-bank velocity (Fig. 3e) shows a 0.4 m sϪ1 jet to 550 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

The hydrographic and bio-optical ®elds show a rapid deepening of the base of the surface layer from 25 to 40 m near 40.77ЊN, with a gradual return to the more typical 25-m depth over about 15 km in the offbank direction (best seen in density, Fig. 3c). This is the man- ifestation of an internal tide ``solibore'' (Henyey and Hoering 1997) propagating onbank from its formation region near the shelf break (Lamb 1994). Henyey and Hoering (1997) de®ne a solibore using Baines' (1986) description: ``the larger-amplitude wave trains which are of tidal origin and are generated at the shelf break or other topographic features such as ridges and banks.'' Henyey and Hoering (1997) go on to say that a solibore will begin life more borelike, but as the energy supply is reduced it will end up more wavelike. We see evidence for both borelike structures and packets of individual waves. An even stronger signal of the internal tide solibore is evident in the line D SeaSoar/ADCP cross-bank section (Fig. 4, right panels). The thermocline is depressed over 30 m near 40.80ЊN and the leading edgeÐthe solibore is propagating to the northwest (to the left in Figs. 3 and 4)Ðis steeper than the trailing edge. The temperature anomaly is formed by subtracting the mean temperature section over the ®ve cross-bank sections (Fig. 4a). On line C (Fig. 4, left panels) there is 2ЊC warm anomaly at 20±30-m depth near 5 km from the shelf break. The solibore is more evident on line D (Fig. 4, right panels) with a 5ЊC warm anomaly at 30±40-m depth near 40.80ЊN and a cold anomaly of up to 6ЊC near 40.74ЊN (Fig. 4e). The cold anomaly, or elevation of the thermocline trailing the solibore, is due to onbank tidal ¯ow encountering the bank edge. The rapid depression followed by a slow elevation trailing the internal solibore is captured in the numerical modeling experiments of Lamb (1994). Cross-bank velocity ®elds show a mode one vertical structure, onbank ¯ow above the pycnocline and offbank ¯ow beneath, associated with the internal tide solibore on lines C and D (Figs. 4c,f). The 1.25-km spatially averaged SeaSoar data do not show individual waves within the internal solibore depression. A set of rank-ordered nonlinear internal waves is often observed within the internal tidal bore packet (e.g., Apel et al. 1975; Liu 1988). In contrast, individual waves do not appear in the solibore depression as it propagates up to 35 km onbank from the shelfbreak in the numerical solutions of Lamb (1994). Although the FIG. 5. (a) Density (kg mϪ3) at 55 m and (b) pressure (dbar) and horizontal resolution of the SeaSoar measurementsÐ (c) temperature (ЊC) on ␴ ϭ 25.8 Ϯ 0.03 kg mϪ3 from all the butter¯y t 300 m at middepth for the unaveraged pro®lesÐmay sampling conducted while tracking a subsurface COOL ¯oat from 0138 UTC 22 Jun to 0112 UTC 24 Jun 1999. not be suf®cient to resolve individual waves, we spec- ulate that there may not be individual waves in the depression because these observations are near the gen- the southwest centered near the 100-m isobath (cross- eration site of the solibores. That is, rank-ordered in- bank velocity is shown in Fig. 4c). High chlorophyll dividual waves within the packet would be expected ¯uorescence (Fig. 3d) is found following and just be- farther away from the generation site as nonlinearity neath the shallow pycnocline. and dispersion allow the shelfbreak depression to MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 551

FIG. 6. Trajectories of a subsurface COOL ¯oat (thick solid curve) and a surface drifter (thick, short-dashed curve) from 22±24 Jun 1999. The continuous ¯oat trajectory is from a model ®t (see text) to the observed ¯oat locations (®lled symbols). The orientation of the shelfbreak front (25.8 kg mϪ3 at 55 m) is indicated by a thick, long-dashed curve. SeaSoar sampling and acoustic tracking were done along the butter¯y patterns (gray curves), which were shifted westward as the ¯oat and drifter were advected with the mean ¯ow. Triangles indicate ¯oat (®lled) and drifter (open) positions at 173.199 31; upside-down triangles indicate ¯oat (®lled) and drifter (open) positions at 173.552 08. Isobaths are in meters. evolve. A set of internal solitons within a packet was algorithm. Low-density water at 39 m brought down by measured by SeaSoar during summer 1996 in 65 m of the propagating internal tide solibore can be seen at water over 50 km from the shelfbreak near 70.5ЊW, t o different cross-bank locations on successive sections. the west of the present study site but with a similar Speci®cally, low density at y ϭ 5 km on line B, at y ϭ hydrographic and physical setting (J. Barth 2002, un- 12.5 km on line C and at y ϭ 20 km on line D are published data). Their wavelength was estimated as 650 manifestations of the same internal tide solibore prop- mÐthe distance between SeaSoar pro®les in water 65 agating onbank. Low-density water at y ϭ 32 km on m deep is 150 mÐin the range of wavelengths estimated line A is from a solibore formed during the previous using measurements from a nearby mooring (Levine and tidal cycle to the one that formed the solibore observed Boyd 1998). Given these wavelengths, the present on lines B±D. SeaSoar measurements could have marginally resolved The propagation speed of the internal tide solibore is individual waves, but we suspect that they are absent estimated as 0.30±0.45 m sϪ1 by comparing the time because of the proximity to the generation point for the and location of the feature on successive sections and internal solibores. accounting for the presence of a cross-bank barotropic The internal solibore is also apparent in the 39-m- tidal ¯ow. Note that because of the presence of the depth property ®elds (Fig. 2), although the sharp hor- along-bank mean ¯ow, the sections near the middle of izontal fronts are smoothed somewhat by the contouring the map are nearly collocated when advected to a com- 552 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 7. (a) Pressure (solid curve) and temperature (dashed curve) recorded by the ¯oat from 0008 UTC 22 Jun to 0657 UTC 24 Jun 1999. Upside-down triangles show the times of ¯oat position ®xes with the ®lled upside-down triangles indicating the times of ¯oat positions plotted together with SeaSoar vertical sections in Figs. 8 and 9. Double-ended arrows indicate start times of solibore passage. Gray vertical bars indicate times of isothermal rise. (b) Vertical velocity (wp) of the isopycnal ¯oat based on the measured pressure (top curve) and diapycnal velocity (water ¯owing past the ¯oat) from the rotation rate of the ¯oat. The data have been smoothed with a 5-point (256 s) moving average. (c) Vertical displacement of the ¯oat (or isopycnal) relative to a water parcel (e.g., the integral of Ϫw␻). Filled (open) circles indicate warming (cooling) events. MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 553

FIG. 8. Vertical sections of density (kg mϪ3) at selected subsurface ¯oat ®x times. The ¯oat positions are indicated by black ®lled circles where the size of the circle roughly indicates the error in positioning. The 25.8 kg m Ϫ3 density contour is dashed. mon time. Therefore, estimates of the internal tide so- 2003). The in¯uence of the internal solibore on the be- libore speed are essentially from the same cross-bank havior of a subsurface ¯oat will be described below. section. The observed internal tide solibore phase speed can be compared with theoretical mode-1, semidiurnal b. First subsurface ¯oat deployment internal wave propagation speeds estimated using density pro®les from three locations across the southern After the shelfbreak frontal region was mapped using ¯ank of the bank (see locations indicated in Fig. 3). The SeaSoar and shipboard ADCP, a subsurface COOL ¯oat estimated theoretical phase speeds are 0.40, 0.46, and was released on the onbank side of the front. A target 0.67 m sϪ1 at 40.95Њ, 40.81Њ, and 40.68ЊN, respectively. density of 25.8 kg mϪ3 was chosen and the ¯oat was The phase speed is largest in the deep, highly strati®ed released at 0008 UTC 22 June 1999 at 40.805ЊN, offbank region and slows as the shallow, more weakly 67.089ЊW. Immediately thereafter a surface drifter strati®ed water column on the bank is approached. The equipped with temperature sensors on its subsurface observed propagation speed is closer to the slow the- drogue was released at the same location. A series of oretical phase speeds consistent with the fact that the ``butter¯y'' sampling patterns were then occupied using features were observed onbank of the shelfbreak front. SeaSoar and shipboard ADCP. The butter¯y patterns The solibore apparent in the repeated sections is formed were designed to give a useful cross-bank representation near the shelf break and propagates onbank when the of the hydrographic and velocity ®elds, to allow acoustic on±offbank tidal velocity becomes slack and begins to tracking of the subsurface ¯oat through triangulation

¯ow onbank (Lamb 1994; Loder et al. 1992; Dale et al. and to be about 0.5±0.7 M 2 tidal cycles long (Fig. 5). 554 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 9. Vertical sections of temperature (ЊC) at selected subsurface ¯oat ®x times. The ¯oat positions are indicated by black ®lled circles where the size of the circle roughly indicates the error in positioning. The 25.8 kg m Ϫ3 density contour is the white curve. Thick white vertical bars in (a) and (b) indicate position and depth extent of surface drifter and drogue.

The butter¯y patterns were shifted westward as needed the subsurface ¯oat moved up the density surface (Fig. as the ¯oat moved with the mean ¯ow. The density at 5b) as it transited in the offbank direction. 55 m from all the SeaSoar butter¯y sampling (Fig. 5a) A time series of pressure and temperature reveals the shows a fairly linear mean shelfbreak front, again run- behavior of the ¯oat during this 50-h mission (Fig. 7a). ning from NE to SW slightly crossing the isobaths. The The ¯oat descended through the cold pool, sampling many repeated crossings of the front that go into this water less than 8ЊC, before reaching its target density map serve to average out the effects of tides and internal of 25.8 kg mϪ3 at a depth of 80 m (13 m above bottom) solibores. The 25.8 kg mϪ3 density surface rises from and a temperature of 8.5ЊC. 70 m onbank of the shelfbreak front to about 25 m in As described in section 2b, cross-bank SeaSoar hy- the offbank direction (Fig. 5b). Last, a strong temper- drographic sections from butter¯y lines closest in time ature gradient exists along the 25.8 kg mϪ3 density sur- to a ¯oat ®x were advected using a tidal velocity model face separating cold shelf water from warm slope water to the time of the ¯oat ®x (Figs. 8 and 9). Errors in (Fig. 5c). ¯oat position are indicated by the size of the ®lled black The surface drifter moved off to the west with the circles and the 25.8 kg mϪ3 density contour is dashed. mean ¯ow (average speed of 0.18 m sϪ1) modulated by The ®rst SeaSoar section after the ¯oat has reached its the M 2 tidal ¯ow (Fig. 6). In contrast, the subsurface target density and has begun to rise is shown in Figs. ¯oat translated more slowly westward (mean speed of 8a and 9a. The series of sections shows how the ¯oat 0.09 m sϪ1) and moved about 15 km in the offbank moved up the frontal isopycnals from a region of cold (cross-front) direction. As will be demonstrated further, to warm water. MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 555

FIG. 10. (a) Along-bank (u) and onbank (␷) velocity of the surface drifter obtained by ®rst-differ- encing the GPS positions. (b) Temperature recorded by the loggers at different depths on the surface drifter's drogue. Vertical lines indicate times of ¯oat ®xes and advected SeaSoar sections (see Figs. 9a,b).

To determine the degree to which the ¯oat was iso- diffusion, and diapycnal mixing. We describe each of pycnal and its actual density, the SeaSoar observation these in detail in the following sections. closest to the ¯oat's location both in depth and in horizontal location can be examined. Details of this comparison can be found in PHRF. The mean density over 1) MEAN VERTICAL VELOCITY 14 observations (with a temperature and pressure range of 9ЊC and 35 dbar) is 25.84 kg mϪ3 with a standard Because of the large vertical excursions of isopycnals deviation of 0.10 kg mϪ3, con®rming the ¯oat's target by the solibores and the internal tide, to calculate the density and that it was isopycnal given the error in po- mean vertical velocity over the entire ¯oat record we sitioning the ¯oat and in interpolating the SeaSoar ob- use three cycles between the deepest excursions re- servations. corded by the ¯oat. On average, the ¯oat moved from The ¯oat record (Fig. 7) contains evidence for the 80 m at day 173.125 to 50 m at day 174.835, for an mean vertical velocity over the ¯oat's mission, internal average vertical velocity of 2.0 ϫ 10Ϫ4 msϪ1 or 17.5 solibores, isothermal rebound of the density surfaces m dayϪ1. Vertical velocities during the three semidiurnal after the passage of the internal tide, along-isopycnal cycles between 173.185 and 174.835 are 31.0, 9.5, and 556 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 12. Temperature pro®le at 8.3 km onbank from the SeaSoar section advected to the ¯oat ®x time 173.552 08 (see Fig. 9b). A vertical temperature gradient of 0.59ЊCmϪ1 is estimated in the depth range 40±45 m as indicated by the gray bar. Dashed lines show vertical temperature gradients of 0.86ЊCmϪ1 and 0.29ЊCmϪ1 at 42 and 46 m, respectively.

pressure increases rapidly by about 20 m. During de-

scent the ¯oat records a negative vertical velocity wp (Fig. 7b) of up to Ϫ0.015 m sϪ1 and the temperature FIG. 11. As in Fig. 7 but for 0936±1536 UTC 22 Jun. remains isothermal. This is the adiabatic depression of the isopycnal surfaces during the passage of the internal 12.0 m dayϪ1, consistent with the front being the steep- tide solibore. In this solibore the ¯oat does not measure est near the foot of the shelfbreak front. any distinguishable individual waves, consistent with the SeaSoar results presented in Figs. 3 and 4. We spec- ulate that these differences could be due to differences 2) INTERNAL SOLIBORES in the vertical strati®cation and nontidal velocity near The ¯oat measures the passage of at least three, and the shelfbreak during solibore formation. Immediately perhaps four, internal tidal solibores (double-ended ar- following the passage of the solibore front, near day rows in Fig. 7) each of which has a different character 173.66, the ¯oat cools. However, the ¯oat does not re- regarding the presence or absence of individual waves cord a signi®cant positive diapycnal velocity at this associated with the internal solibore front. Evidence that time, and so this cooling could only come from along- the ¯oat does indeed track water parcels even as they isopycnal diffusion. move vertically is found near day 174.75 during the At day 174.17 another solibore front passes at 12.42 passage of an internal solibore. A closer look at this h or 0.5175 days after the previous one at day 173.65. event can be found in PHRF. The ¯oat underwent a The ¯oat again records a negative vertical velocity wp series of large undulations in pressure (up to 20 m peak- of about Ϫ0.015 m sϪ1. Immediately after the passage to-peak) with vertical velocities of Ϯ0.03 m sϪ1. of the solibore, near day 174.175, the ¯oat again cools Throughout this time the temperature stayed nearly iso- and this time the ¯oat records a positive diapycnal ve- thermal and, more important, the ¯ow of water past the locity (¯ow up past the ¯oat) of up to 0.002 m sϪ1,

¯oat, indicated by w␻ in Fig. 7b, was small. The ¯oat perhaps indicative of turbulent mixing in the trail of the is moving with the water. Using a propagation speed of propagating solibore. 0.30 (0.45) m sϪ1, the estimated wavelength between The ¯oat shows no signs of cooling in the wake of individual waves in this packet is 190 (280) m, far too the solibore passage at 174.75, most likely because the short to be resolved by the SeaSoar sampling. ¯oat has moved across the shelfbreak front and is now Earlier in the record, the ¯oat measures the passage in a region of weaker vertical and horizontal temperature of an internal tide solibore (near day 173.65) where the gradients (see Fig. 9f). Just before recovery, a ®nal in- MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 557

10a). Temperature records from thermistors located between the surface and 20 m also show semidiurnal pe- riodicity (Fig. 10b). The drogued drifter records periods when the upper 20 m is relatively homogeneous separated by periods when strati®cation rebuilds in the upper layer. Since the drifter is moving with the water, the only way this signal could arise is from changes in the upper layer strati®cation. The asymmetric signal, that is, slow rebuilding of the strati®cation versus the sudden onset of isothermal conditions, can be explained by the propagation of the internal tide solibore past the surface drogue. This can be shown be examining the drogued drifter and subsurface ¯oat records, and the advected SeaSoar sections early in the deployment before the surface drifter advects too far away. At day 173.199 31, the drogued drifter is slightly offbank of the subsurface ¯oat (see Figs. 6 and 9a) and the drifter temperature records show relatively homogeneous temperatures (Fig. 10b). At this time the drogued drifter is offbank of the location of the internal tide solibore that has re- cently passed both the drifter and ¯oat (at 173.15) and the temperature loggers are all located in the approximately 19ЊC upper layer. By the time of the 173.552 08 ¯oat ®x, the drogued drifter is located in the trailing region of the internal tide solibore where the thermocline has elevated high enough that the 20-m temperature sensor is measuring water less than 16ЊC (Figs. 6, 9b, and 10b). The solibore front at 173.552 08 is at approximately 19 km onbank of the shelfbreak (Fig. 9b), consistent with propagation at 0.30 m sϪ1 from its location just onbank of the ¯oat at 173.199 31. Note that the sudden onset of isothermal conditions occurs shortly after the barotropic tide has reversed from off- to onbank (Fig. 10a). This is consistent with release of the internal solibore from the shelfbreak formation region when the tide turns. This time difference gets longer as the surface ¯oat moves farther onbank. When the ¯oat and drifter are relatively close together, an estimate of the internal solibore propagation speed can be made by using the positions of the ¯oat when the internal solibore passes by at 173.625 (Fig. 7) and of the drifter when the same solibore passes by at 173.8 (Fig. 10b). This yields an propagation speed of 0.4 m sϪ1, again consistent with estimates above.

3) ISOTHERMAL REBOUND After descending to its target density, the ¯oat rises at nearly constant temperature to a depth of 50 m by FIG. 13. As in Fig. 5 but from all the butter¯y sampling conducted about day 173.45 (gray vertical bar in Fig. 7). This while tracking a subsurface COOL ¯oat from 2315 UTC 25 Jun to isothermal rise is a combination of the rebound of the 0312 UTC 28 Jun 1999. density surface after the passage of the internal tide as mentioned above plus along-isopycnal upwelling at the ternal solibore passes the subsurface ¯oat near day foot of the shelfbreak front. Vertical sections of density 175.25. (Fig. 8a) and temperature (Fig. 9a) show the ¯oat's po- The surface drifter that was released at the same time sition during this isothermal upwelling. The average and location as the subsurface drifter exhibits signi®cant vertical velocity during this time is 1.4 ϫ 10Ϫ3 msϪ1 along- and onbank semidiurnal tidal velocities (Fig. or 124 m dayϪ1. That this is too large for just along- 558 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 14. Trajectories of a subsurface COOL ¯oat (thick solid curve and symbols) and a surface drifter (thick, short-dashed curve) from 25 to 28 Jun 1999. The continuous ¯oat trajectory is from a model ®t (see text) to the ¯oat locations. The orientation of the shelfbreak front (25.8 kg m Ϫ3 at 55 m) is indicated by a thick, long-dashed curve. SeaSoar sampling and acoustic tracking were done along the butter¯y patterns (gray curves), which were shifted westward as the ¯oat and drifter were advected with the mean ¯ow. Isobaths are in meters.

isopycnal upwelling can be discerned by noting that the 4) ALONG-ISOPYCNAL DIFFUSION ¯oat moves about 3.3 km across the front in the half Ϫ3 day since launch (Fig. 6) and that the 25.8 kg m is- Near the end of the second period of isopycnal re- Ϫ3 opycnal slope is 3.4 ϫ 10 . This implies a vertical bound (at day 174.05), the ¯oat warms again by about Ϫ4 Ϫ1 Ϫ1 velocity of 2.6 ϫ 10 ms or 22 m day , consistent 2ЊC. During this time the ¯oat does not record a sig- with our mean estimates made earlier. ni®cant prolonged negative diapycnal velocity. How- The cycle repeats as the ¯oat descends in the internal ever, the ¯oat is in a region of a strong along-isopycnal tide solibore at day 173.65 then rises (day 173.7± temperature gradient (Fig. 9c) and so could warm by 174.025) because of isothermal rebound of the pycno- along-isopycnal diffusion. An estimate of horizontal dif- cline and along-isopycnal upwelling. Note the similarity fusivity may be made using the SeaSoar-derived along- of the ¯oat pressure trace in time in Fig. 7a to the spatial isopycnal temperature gradient at the ¯oat's location structure of the 25.1±25.7 kg mϪ3 isopycnals in Fig. 3c. during the warming (Fig. 9c). Using ⌬T/⌬t ϭ 3.6 ϫ -y 2 ϭ 1±2 (ϫ10Ϫ6 ЊC2 mϪ2) sugץ/2T ץ A third period of isothermal rise (day 174.25±174.4) is 10Ϫ4 ЊCsϪ1 and shorter than the previous two. A ®nal period of weaker gests that the horizontal diffusivity is on the order of isothermal rise occurs from day 174.8 to 175.0, followed 100 m2 sϪ1. This horizontal diffusivity estimate has a by an isothermal, nearly constant pressure period large uncertainty given the dif®culty of estimating the (175.0±175.2). along-isopycnal second derivative of temperature. MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 559

FIG. 15. As in Fig. 7 but for the subsurface COOL ¯oat tracked from 2207 UTC 25 Jun to 0546 UTC 28 Jun 1999. 560 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 16. (a)±(c), (e)±(f) Vertical sections of density (kg m Ϫ3) at selected subsurface ¯oat ®x times. (d) Vertical section of along-bank velocity from the same time period as in (a) (contour interval 0.05 m s Ϫ1) with negative values (solid contours) toward 240Њ true, i.e., southwestward. The ¯oat positions are indicated by black ®lled circles where the size of the circle roughly indicates the error in positioning. The 25.9 kg m Ϫ3 density contour is dashed.

5) DIAPYCNAL VELOCITY ¯oat should balance the diapycnal velocity times the temperature gradient Near day 173.55, the ¯oat records a rise in temper- Tץ DT ature accompanied by a period of signi®cant diapycnal ϭϪw . (1) zץ velocity downward past the ¯oat (Fig. 7b). The water Dt ␻ in which the ¯oat was located has undergone heating From (1) an expression for the diapycnal velocity is via a diapycnal ¯ux in the presence of a diapycnal tem- Tץ perature gradient as evident in a vertical section of tem- DT perature from this time (Fig. 9b). By integrating w␻ over w␻ ϭϪ . (2) zץtime, the ¯oat is displaced about 13 m relative to the Dt ΋ water in which it was released during this diapycnal The ¯oat heats up by 2.6ЊC from 173.53 to 173.55, an mixing event (Fig. 7c). interval of 1728 s (Fig. 11a). From the closest SeaSoar z ϭ 0.59ЊCmϪ1 inץ/Tץ ,The diapycnal warming event from day 173.47 to pro®le to the ¯oat's location 173.55 (Fig. 11) may be examined further in terms of the depth range 40±45 m (Fig. 12). The depth range of a one-dimensional heat balance. An estimate of the po- the mean density plus and minus one standard deviation tential in¯uence of horizontal diffusion will be made (25.84 Ϯ 0.10) is 37±43 m. Calculating w␻ from (2) following this calculation. Since the ¯oat is isopycnal, yields an estimate of Ϫ2.6 ϫ 10Ϫ3 msϪ1 or Ϫ2.6 mm Ϫ1 the time rate-of-change of temperature measured by the s . This is close to the ¯oat's average measured w␻ MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 561

FIG. 17. Vertical sections of temperature (ЊC) at selected subsurface ¯oat ®x times. The ¯oat positions are indicated by black ®lled circles where the size of the circle roughly indicates the error in positioning. The 25.9 kg mϪ3 density contour is the white curve.

during this isopycnal warming event (173.47±173.55) gionÐrepresents 20% of the observed 1.5 ϫ 10Ϫ3 ЊC z sϪ1 temperature change during this event. Thus, thereץ/Tץ Fig. 11b). Given the uncertainty in estimating) from a nearby SeaSoar pro®le, we conclude that the is at least a 20% error in estimates of w␻ based on measured w␻ is consistent with the physics described assuming a one-dimensional balance. by (1). Since the isopycnal ¯oat makes a direct measurement The ¯oat measures a smaller increase in temperature of the ¯ow past the ¯oat due to diapycnal mixing, we 2 Ϫ1 near the beginning of the diapycnal event (173.47± can estimate ␬T (m s ), the diapycnal thermal diffu- 173.49), but then remains isothermal near 9ЊC even in sivity as follows. Assuming again a one-dimensional the presence of nonzero measured w␻ from 173.49 to heat balance following the ¯oat 173.53. The SeaSoar measurements do not have suf®- Tץץ cient horizontal resolution to resolve the temperature DT ϭ ␬ , (3) zץ z΂΃Tץ gradients to ®ne enough scale to apply (1) continuously Dt to the ¯oat record. However, the lack of temperature change during this period is likely due to the absence equating (1) and (3), assuming that w␻ is independent of a diapycnal temperature gradient at this temperature of z, and integrating between z1 and z 2 yields (Fig. 12). This cusp in the vertical pro®le of temperature Ϫw [T(z ) Ϫ T(z )] results from the presence of the cold pool on the outer ␻ 12 ␬ T ϭ . (4) Tץ Tץ .(shelf (Fig. 9 (z ) Ϫ (z ) zץz 12ץ[] -Returning to the one-dimensional balance used in es timating w␻ from (1), a temperature change of 3.6 ϫ 10Ϫ4 ЊCsϪ1 due to horizontal diffusionÐour estimate For the diapycnal warming event during the ®rst ¯oat earlier of along-isopycnal diffusion in the frontal re- deployment (Figs. 11 and 12), using values of w␻ ϭ 562 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34

FIG. 18. As in Fig. 7 but for the subsurface COOL ¯oat tracked from 0600 to 1200 UTC 27 Jun 1999. Gray vertical bars denote periods when the ¯oat detected cooling; events A±G are described FIG. 19. Vertical sections of chlorophyll ¯uorescence (V) near the in the text. (a) launch and (b) recovery times (indicated in lower-left corner of each panel) of the subsurface ¯oat. The thick white curves are the 25.2 and 25.8 kg mϪ3 density contours. Ϫ3 Ϫ1 /Tץ Ϫ2.6 ϫ 10 ms ,[T(z1) Ϫ T(z 2)] ϭ 2.6ЊC, and Ϫ1 z ϭ 0.86 and 0.29 ЊCm at z1 ϭ 42 m and z 2 ϭ 46ץ Ϫ2 m, respectively, (see Fig. 12) gives ␬T ϭ 1.2 ϫ 10 was advected by the semidiurnal tide, but moved less m2 sϪ1. than 5 km from its release point (Fig. 14). The surface Another period of warming near day 174.525 after drogued drifter also moved with the tide, but was ad- isothermal rebound is again accompanied by a negative vected initially to the southwest before moving offbank diapycnal velocity (heat ¯ux down from above). A ver- and eastward. This cyclonic movement is consistent tical section just prior to this warming shows the ¯oat with the observed ridge in the density ®eld (Fig. 13) position relative to the vertical temperature gradient via geostrophic balance. (Figs. 8e and 9e). A time series from the ¯oat shows an overall descent from around 40 m at deployment to 60 m at recovery for a net 10 m dayϪ1 downwelling (Fig. 15). Cross-bank c. Second subsurface ¯oat deployment sections of density advected with the tide to the time A second deployment of a subsurface ¯oat and of selected ¯oat ®xes show that isopycnals in the shelf- drogued surface drifter was carried out from 25±28 June break front bend down on the offbank end of the sections 1999. During this period the shelfbreak front rose to (Fig. 16). The ¯oat rides on top of cold pool except at about 40 m starting from around 70 m near the foot on 178.439 59 (Fig. 17d) when the ¯oat is located at a local the bank (Fig. 13). In contrast to the ®rst ¯oat deploy- temperature minimum such that warm water lies both ment period though, the front deepened again to the above and below. This section is from just after the south (Fig. 13). This doming of the isopycnals and a cooling and warming events described below which rely more convoluted front (cf. Figs. 5 and 13) are likely on the presence of an in¯ection point in the vertical due to the mesoscale variability introduced by the pres- pro®le of temperature. ence of a warm core ring offshore. The subsurface ¯oat A comparison of the ¯oat record with nearby SeaSoar MARCH 2004 BARTH ET AL. 563 pro®les reveals that this ¯oat was also isopycnal within icz and Chapman 1992; Chapman and Lentz 1994). the error of the estimates (PHRF). Over 19 comparative However, quantitative estimates of the strength of the points, the mean (standard deviation) is 25.88 (0.05) kg secondary ¯ow in the models are sensitive to the pa- mϪ3 versus 25.84 (0.10) kg mϪ3 for the ®rst release. rameterization of vertical mixing (Chapman 2002). The Signatures of internal tide solibores are present (e.g., measured along-isopycnal upwelling velocity during the 177.35, Fig. 15), but are not as evident as during the ®rst semidiurnal period of the ¯oat mission, 31.0 m ®rst ¯oat deployment because the background density dayϪ1, is also in excess of previous estimates of 4±11 ®eld is more complex. This complexity affects both for- m dayϪ1 from a purposeful dye release (Houghton and mation and propagation of the internal tide. Note, how- Visbeck 1998) and through analysis of the distribution ever, that during the solibore passage at 177.35 down- of suspended particles and by integrating horizontal ve- ward velocities reach Ϫ0.01 m sϪ1, the ¯oat remains locity convergence (Barth et al. 1998). Both these pre- isothermal and there is relatively little measured ¯ow vious studies estimated vertical velocities within 30±40 past the ¯oat. As during solibore passage during the ®rst m of the bottom and invoked convergence in the bottom deployment, this response is essentially adiabatic. Ev- boundary layer for their origin. The subsurface ¯oat idence for an internal tide solibore is present at 5 km measurements during the ®rst semidiurnal period of the on-bank from the shelf break at 178.439 59 (Fig. 16e). ¯oat mission extend up to about 55 m above the bottom. Over the entire record, water moves up past the ¯oat Models predict maximum vertical velocities higher in such that the ¯oat ends up about 13 m below the water the water column, above the bottom boundary layer, in which it was originally released (Fig. 15c). The over- consistent with the ¯oat results. The vertical velocity all movement of water past the ¯oat occurs in a few estimate of 23 m dayϪ1 from integration of the conti- periods of signi®cant positive diapycnal velocity, for nuity equation using measured cross-stream velocities example, 177.85, 178.05, and 178.3±178.5. Cooling oc- (Pickart 2000) falls within the range (9.5±31.0 m dayϪ1) curs during the ®rst and last of these events, so colder measured here. We note that the size of the vertical water must lie below the ¯oat. In fact, the ¯oat is riding velocity is also sensitive to the slope of the shelfbreak on top of the cold pool (Fig. 17). front, which may differ in each of these realizations. The event from 178.3 to 178.5 accounts for about The upwelling of nutrient-rich water along isopycnals half of the total relative vertical displacement of water from near the bottom up into the euphotic zone could past the ¯oat (Fig. 18). Cooling occurs at the start of fuel the high phytoplankton biomass observed in as- this event (178.3±178.323; gray vertical bar labeled A sociation with the shelfbreak front (Marra et al. 1990). in Fig. 18) when the ¯oat lies above the cold pool. A For the 22±24 June 1999 deployment, the ¯oat begins cooling of 0.42ЊC in 2160 s in the presence of a vertical in a region of low chlorophyll ¯uorescence near the foot temperature gradient from a nearby SeaSoar pro®le (not of the shelfbreak front and then rises into a region of shown) of 0.12ЊCmϪ1 and using (2) yields a diapycnal higher ¯uorescence where the shelfbreak front joins the velocity of 1.62 ϫ 10Ϫ3 msϪ1, consistent with the ob- 20±30-m-deep pycnocline (Fig. 19). served motion past the ¯oat. Immediately after the ¯oat Measured diapycnal velocities of up to 3 ϫ 10Ϫ3 m cools because of water moving up from below, the ¯oat sϪ1 occur along the shelfbreak front separating cold, warms even in the presence of continued motion of fresh shelf water from warm, salty slope water. These water from below (B: 178.323±178.342). This is con- velocities are three orders of magnitude greater than the sistent with the existence of warm water below the ¯oat, diathermal velocities inferred from dye patch evolution i.e. below the cold pool (Fig. 17d). The ¯oat repeats in the strati®ed region just above the bottom boundary this behavior once more, cooling (C: 178.342±178.355) layer near the foot of the shelfbreak front (Houghton then warming (D: 178.355±178.375) with water move- and Visbeck 1998). Much of this discrepancy is due to ment up past the ¯oat in the presence of the in¯ection the fact that the dye-based estimate is an integral over z pro®le. Then the ¯oat undergoes two cycles several days and several kilometers spatially, while theץ/Tץ in the of downward movement of water past the ¯oat accom- ¯oat-based measurement is essentially an instantaneous panied by cooling (E, G), followed by upward move- point measurement. Using the total relative displacement of water past the ¯oat and warming (F, H). This ment of water past the ¯oat for each 2-day deployment pattern is a consequence of the ¯oat now being located (Figs. 7c and 15c) yields an average diapycnal velocity .(z in¯ection point so that colder water of 4±8 (ϫ10Ϫ5 msϪ1ץ/Tץ beneath the lies above and warmer below. The strong mixing in this approximately 2-h event yields diffusivites about three orders of magnitude greater than longer time-averaged open ocean values, indic- 4. Discussion ative of strong mixing events that can occur in the coast- The directly measured mean along-isopycnal vertical al ocean (e.g., Horne et al. 1996; Gregg 1998). Estimates velocity of 17.5 m dayϪ1 within the shelfbreak front on of time-averaged vertical diffusivity from a dye release the southern ¯ank of Georges Bank is qualitatively con- experiment over 2.5±5 days in strati®ed coastal water sistent with, but larger than, model predictions for sec- away from the shelfbreak front are also small: 0.4±3.0 ondary circulation near a shelfbreak front (Gawarkiew- (ϫ10Ϫ5 m2 sϪ1) (Sundermeyer and Ledwell 2001). The 564 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 34 need for continuous estimates of the vertical temperature Acknowledgments. We thank the Oregon State Uni- gradient along the ¯oat track precludes an estimate of versity Marine Technicians, M. Willis and L. Fayler, for a longer time-average diapycnal thermal diffusivity the successful SeaSoar operations and R. O'Malley for from the present experiment. The ¯oat-derived estimate SeaSoar data acquisition and processing. We gratefully of ␬T may also be compared with values from the shelf- acknowledge the of®cers and crew of the R/V Oceanus break front region using a towed microstructure instru- for their skillful efforts at sea. Thanks to S. Fontana for ment (Dillon et al. 2003) where vertical temperature help in collecting and processing the ADCP data. We variance is used to estimate ␬T: also appreciate the assistance of M. Prater and J. Fon- taine for the preparation of the COOL ¯oats and for 22T recovering data from a slightly ¯ooded ¯oat. We thankץTЈץ ␬ T ϭ 3D , (5) D. Gifford and K. Wishner for providing the ADCP zץ zץ ΂΃΋΂΃ velocity data from R/V Endeavor cruise 325 and R. where D ϭ 1.4 ϫ 10Ϫ7 m2 sϪ1 is the molecular diffu- Schlitz for providing moored velocity data, both of sivity. In a May 1997 section across the shelfbreak front which were used in our tidal velocity analysis. L. Huey, along 70.5ЊW to the west of Georges Bank, Dillon et then an undergraduate student at Grambling State Uni- al. (2003) reported diffusivities as large as 1 ϫ 10Ϫ3 m2 versity, helped with the analysis of the temperature time sϪ1 and sometimes larger. series shown in Fig. 10. Thanks to T. Boyd for com- puting the theoretical mode-1, semidiurnal internal wave phase speeds. J. Bisagni generously provided the sat- 5. Summary and conclusions ellite sea surface temperature image. Support from Na- tional Science Foundation Grants OCE-9806650 and In this paper, direct observations of upwelling along OCE-9813641 is gratefully acknowledged. Additional a shelfbreak front using a Lagrangian subsurface ¯oat support for JAB during the analysis phase was provided in combination with high-spatial-resolution hydrograph- by NSF Grants OCE-9907854 and OCE-0001035 and ic and velocity mapping are reported. The region of for DH from the State of Rhode Island and Providence upwelling extends from the foot of the shelfbreak front Plantations. up to 60 m above the bottom, well above the bottom boundary layer. 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