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ABSTRACT

Weatherly et al. 2005

Weatherly, G.L., N. Wieders, and A. Romanou, 2005: Intermediate-depth circulation in the Gulf of Mexico estimated from direct measurements. In Circulation in the Gulf of Mexico: Observations and Models, AGU Geophysical Monograph 161. W. Sturges and A. Lugo-Fernandez, Eds. American Geophysical Union, pp. 315-324.

Data from 17 PALACE floats set in the Gulf of Mexico sampling the intermediate-depth (≈900 dbar) flow from April 1998 to February 2002 indicate a mean cyclonic circulation along the northern and western edges of the Gulf of Mexico. This flow intensified into a ≈0.10 m/s current in the western Bay of Campeche and was deflected around a topographic feature, called here the Campeche Bay Bump, in the southern Bay of Campeche. Floats launched in the eastern Gulf of Mexico tended to stay there, and those launched in the western Gulf tended to stay in the western Gulf, suggesting restricted connection at depth between the eastern and western Gulf of Mexico. Not surprisingly, the measured flow was stronger when the measured flow was under the Loop Current and warm-core rings, but the direction of the intermediated depth currents bore no apparent relation to the surface flow inferred from satellite altimeter maps. However, comparing the floats' surface drifts to their intermediate depth drifts, the floats at depth ended to track the surface flow in the Loop Current, and both indicate a cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche.

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