Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

Eddies in the ocean move westwards. Those shed by western boundary currents must then interact with shelf-slope topography at the western boundary.

This simple picture is complicated by the presence of other eddies and mean flows, but satellite observations show that many western boundary continental shelves are affected by mesoscale eddies translating near the shelfbreak. In this SST image, a Gulf Stream Warm Core Ring (anticyclone) transports cold fresh shelf water offshore across the Mid-Atlantic Bight shelfbreak. Using idealized numerical simulations, I address three questions:

1. Does the eddy always get to the shelfbreak, or can sloping topography stop an eddy from crossing it?
2. What is the magnitude of offshore transport driven by these eddies?
3. What is the effect of the eddy on the shelf's flow field?