A numerical study of gyres, thermal fronts and seasonal circulation in austral semi-enclosed gulfs

Seasonal Variability of the Oceanic Circulation in the Gulf of San Jorge, Argentina

“…Summer cyclonic recirculating patterns like the one observed over the GSJ Central Basin are also expected in small and deep sub-basins if a cold-water pool produced by winter cooling is isolated by tidal mixing during the start of stratification (Hill, 1996). Similar cyclonic recirculating patterns associated with dense bottom lenses have been observed and modeled in the Gulf of California (Lavin et al, 1997), the Yellow Sea (Hu et al, 1991), the Irish Sea (Hill et al, 1997), and the Argentinean North Patagonian Gulfs (Tonini et al, 2013). While mostly barotropic in nature, the main anticyclonic gyres are driven by different forcing mechanisms.…”

Benthic-pelagic uncoupling between the Northern Patagonian Frontal System and Patagonian scallop beds

“…4 and 5). The ellipses configured for the particles released from the fronts g2 and g3 agree with the general pattern of circulation on the Patagonian shelf, forced mainly by residual tidal flow and the surface Ekman transport, which generates a predominant flow in the direction NeNE (Tonini et al, 2013). In neither of the months the bulk of the particles were dispersed towards the area delimited by the polygon.…”

“…For our realistic experiments outputs (three dimensional currents and vertical diffusivity fields) from a high resolution hydrodynamic model (ROMS, 3-D) of the North Patagonian region were used (Tonini et al, 2013). The resulting flow patterns and tracer fields (temperature and salinity) obtained with this model were analyzed and validated against the available observations in Tonini et al (2013); here only a brief summary is given.…”

“…The resulting flow patterns and tracer fields (temperature and salinity) obtained with this model were analyzed and validated against the available observations in Tonini et al (2013); here only a brief summary is given. The spatial resolution of the grid is variable, with maximum resolution (~1 km) into the gulfs.…”

“…The highest rates of tidal energy dissipation occur in the northernmost part of the NPFS (Palma et al, 2004;Tonini et al, 2013). This area is located in the southeastern tip of the Vald es Peninsula extending to the northeast (~42 S) and it has a highlighted importance as one of the most important frontal areas of the shelf.…”