Abstract
The meandering of the Gulf Stream through the Straits of Florida is associated with eddy activity to the north (along the Florida Keys) and the south (along the Cuban coast). This study focuses on recently identified processes along the Cuban coast, namely anticyclonic eddies (Cuban ANticyclones: CubANs) and cyclonic activity characterized by cold-core eddies (cyclones) and coastal upwelling that enhances them. It is shown that these processes are an important factor for the evolution of the Loop Current/Florida Current (LC/FC) system. In particular, the Gulf Stream meandering inside the Straits (that is manifested as the position of the FC branch) is strongly related to CubANs either inside the retracted (closer to the Cuban coast) LC branch (CubAN “A”) or outside the LC as independent eddies (CubAN “B”). There are also mixed cases that both types of CubANs can be present, sharing a common place of origin, but evolving differently. These anticyclones are found to be strongly related to cyclonic activity and resulting temperature gradients along Cuba, characterized by cold-core cyclonic eddies and additional pools of cold waters that have upwelled under wind influence. These processes are shown to influence Gulf Stream meandering and also largely control the offshore export of upwelled, generally cooler and more productive, coastal waters. High-resolution simulations, in tandem with a variety of observational data, are used during a period of 8 years (2010–2017) to describe the evolution of CubANs and their contribution to Gulf Stream variability and associated coastal to offshore interactions. These findings are important for connectivity pathways between US and Cuban marine protected areas and between US coasts and the main Cuban area of oil exploration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
22 July 2020
The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.
References
Androulidakis Y, Kourafalou V, Le Hénaff M, Kang H, Sutton T, Chen S, Hu C, Ntaganou N (2019) Offshore spreading of Mississippi waters: pathways and vertical structure under eddy influence. J Geophys Res: Oceans
Bleck R (2002) An oceanic general circulation model framed in hybrid isopycnic-Cartesian coordinates. Ocean Model 4(1):55–88
Chassignet EP, Hurlburt HE, Metzger EJ, Smedstad OM, Cummings JA, Halliwell GR, Bleck R, Baraille R, Wallcraft AJ, Lozano C, Tolman HL (2009) US GODAE: global ocean prediction with the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). Oceanography 22(2):64–75
Claro RODOLFO, Reshetnikov YS, Alcolado PM (2001) Physical attributes of coastal Cuba. Ecology of the marine fishes of Cuba. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 1–20
Fratantoni PS, Lee TN, Podesta GP, Muller-Karger F (1998) The influence of Loop Current perturbations on the formation and evolution of Tortugas eddies in the southern Straits of Florida. J Geophys Res Oceans 103(C11):24759–24779
Garraffo ZD, Mariano AJ, Griffa A, Veneziani C, Chassignet EP (2001) Lagrangian data in a high-resolution numerical simulation of the North Atlantic: I. Comparison with in situ drifter data. J Mar Syst 29(1-4):157–176
Gierach MM, Subrahmanyam B, Thoppil PG (2009) Physical and biological responses to Hurricane Katrina (2005) in a 1/25 nested Gulf of Mexico HYCOM. J Mar Syst 78(1):168–179
Gula J, Molemaker MJ, McWilliams JC (2015) Topographic vorticity generation, submesoscale instability and vortex street formation in the Gulf Stream. Geophys Res Lett 42(10):4054–4062
Gula J, Molemaker MJ, McWilliams JC (2016) Topographic generation of submesoscale centrifugal instability and energy dissipation. Nat Commun 7:12811
Hall CA, Leben RR (2016) Observational evidence of seasonality in the timing of Loop Current eddy separation. Dyn Atmos Oceans 76:240–267
Halliwell GR Jr, Srinivasan A, Kourafalou V, Yang H, Willey D, Le Hénaff M, Atlas R (2014) Rigorous evaluation of a fraternal twin ocean OSSE system for the open Gulf of Mexico. J Atmos Ocean Technol 31(1):105–130
Halliwell GR Jr, Kourafalou V, Le Hénaff M, Shay LK, Atlas R (2015) OSSE impact analysis of airborne ocean surveys for improving upper-ocean dynamical and thermodynamical forecasts in the Gulf of Mexico. Prog Oceanogr 130:32–46
Hu C (2011) An empirical approach to derive MODIS ocean color patterns under severe sun glint. Geophys Res Lett 38(1)
Johns WE, Schott F (1987) Meandering and transport variations of the Florida Current. J Phys Oceanogr 17(8):1128–1147
Kourafalou VH, Kang H (2012) Florida Current meandering and evolution of cyclonic eddies along the Florida Keys Reef Tract: are they interconnected? J Geophys Res Oceans 117(C5)
Kourafalou VH, Peng G, Kang H, Hogan PJ, Smedstad OM, Weisberg RH (2009) Evaluation of global ocean data assimilation experiment products on South Florida nested simulations with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model. Ocean Dyn 59(1):47–66
Kourafalou V, Androulidakis Y, Le Hénaff M, Kang H (2017) The Dynamics of Cuba Anticyclones (CubANs) and Interaction with the Loop Current/Florida Current System. J Geophys Res Oceans 122(10):7897–7923
Le Hénaff M, Kourafalou VH (2016) Mississippi waters reaching South Florida reefs under no flood conditions: synthesis of observing and modeling system findings. Ocean Dyn 66(3):435–459
Le Hénaff M, Kourafalou VH, Morel Y, Srinivasan A (2012) Simulating the dynamics and intensification of cyclonic Loop Current Frontal Eddies in the Gulf of Mexico. J Geophys Res Oceans 117(C2)
Leben RR (2005) Altimeter-derived loop current metrics. Geophys Monograph-Am Geophys Union 161:181
Lee TN (1975) Florida Current spin-off eddies. In Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts (Vol. 22, No. 11, pp. 753-765). Elsevier.
Lee TN, Williams E (1988) Wind-forced transport fluctuations of the Florida Current. J Phys Oceanogr 18(7):937–946
Lee TN, Rooth C, Williams E, McGowan M, Szmant AF, Clarke ME (1992) Influence of Florida Current, gyres and wind-driven circulation on transport of larvae and recruitment in the Florida Keys coral reefs. Cont Shelf Res 12(7-8):971–1002
Lee TN, Leaman K, Williams E, Berger T, Atkinson L (1995) Florida Current meanders and gyre formation in the southern Straits of Florida. J Geophys Res Oceans 100(C5):8607–8620
Liu Y, Weisberg RH, Hu C, Kovach C, Riethmüller R (2011) Evolution of the Loop Current system during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill event as observed with drifters and satellites. Monitoring and Modeling the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A Record-Breaking Enterprise. Geophys Monogr Ser 195:91–101
Lumpkin R, Pazos M (2007) Measuring surface currents with Surface Velocity Program drifters: the instrument, its data, and some recent results. Lagrangian analysis and prediction of coastal and ocean dynamics, pp. 39-67
Mariano AJ, Kourafalou VH, Srinivasan A, Kang H, Halliwell GR, Ryan EH, Roffer M (2011) On the modeling of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Dyn Atmos Oceans 52(1-2):322–340
Meunier T, Rossi V, Morel Y, Carton X (2010) Influence of bottom topography on an upwelling current: generation of long trapped filaments. Ocean Model 35:277–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2010.08.004
Mezić I, Loire S, Fonoberov VA, Hogan P (2010) A new mixing diagnostic and Gulf oil spill movement. Science 330(6003):486–489
Nencioli F, Dong C, Dickey T, Washburn L, McWilliams JC (2010) A vector geometry–based eddy detection algorithm and its application to a high-resolution numerical model product and high-frequency radar surface velocities in the Southern California Bight. J Atmos Ocean Technol 27(3):564–579
Niiler PP, Paduan JD (1995) Wind-driven motions in the northeast Pacific as measured by Lagrangian drifters. J Phys Oceanogr 25(11):2819–2830
Oey L, Ezer T, Lee H (2005) Loop Current, rings and related circulation in the Gulf of Mexico: a review of numerical models and future challenges. Geophys Monograph-Am Geophys Union 161:31
Paris CB, Le Hénaff M, Aman ZM, Subramaniam A, Helgers J, Wang DP, Kourafalou VH, Srinivasan A (2012) Evolution of the Macondo well blowout: simulating the effects of the circulation and synthetic dispersants on the subsea oil transport. Environ Sci Technol 46(24):13293–13302
Prasad TG, Hogan PJ (2007) Upper-ocean response to Hurricane Ivan in a 1/25 nested Gulf of Mexico HYCOM. J Geophys Res Oceans 112(C4)
Reverdin G, Niiler PP, Valdimarsson H (2003) North Atlantic ocean surface currents. J Geophys Res Oceans 108(C1):2–1
Schott FA, Lee TN, Zantopp R (1988) Variability of structure and transport of the Florida Current in the period range of days to seasonal. J Phys Oceanogr 18(9):1209–1230
Shi C, Nof D (1993) The splitting of eddies along boundaries. J Mar Res 51(4):771–795
Siam-Lahera C (1983) Corrientes superficiales alrededor de Cuba. Rev Cuba Investig Pesq 13:1–15
Zhang Y, Hu C, Liu Y, Weisberg RH, Kourafalou VH (2019) Submesoscale and mesoscale eddies in the Florida Straits: Observations from satellite ocean color measurements. Geophys Res Lett 46(22):13262–13270
Funding
This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI: award GR-009514 to V. Kourafalou). M. Le Hénaff received partial support for this work from the base funds of the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. This study has been conducted using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information. The river discharge data were obtained through the U.S. Geological Survey (https://www.usgs.gov/) and the Army Corps of Engineers. The AVISO Ssalto/Duacs altimeter products were produced and distributed by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (http://marine.copernicus.eu/). The Level 4 Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution (MUR) Group for High-Resolution SST (GHRSST, https:///www.ghrsst.org/) data set is distributed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA (https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/JPL-L4UHfnd-GLOB-MUR). The high-resolution ocean color images from MODIS data, which are openly accessible from NASA: https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/, are distributed by the Optical Oceanography Laboratory (University of South Florida; https://optics.marine.usf.edu/).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Amin Chabchoub
Appendix. Detection of mesoscale eddies inside the Straits of Florida
Appendix. Detection of mesoscale eddies inside the Straits of Florida
The detecting algorithm of the center of the anticyclonic CubAN eddy, developed for this study, is based on the methodology introduced by Nencioli et al. (2010), which holds for both anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies. The detection of an eddy’s center is based on the following constrains:
-
(i)
along the east-west axis, the zonal velocity has to reverse in sign across the central model cell of the eddy while its magnitude increases away from it;
-
(ii)
along the south-north axis, the meridional velocity has to reverse in sign across the central model cell of the eddy while its magnitude increases away from it;
-
(iii)
velocity magnitude has a local minimum at the eddy center; and
-
(iv)
sea surface height (SSH) has a local maximum at the eddy center representing the sea level peak in the center of an anticyclonic eddy, while SSH has a local minimum at the center of a cyclonic eddy.
The algorithm was applied using the meridional and zonal components of the daily surface velocities and SSH, simulated by the GoM-HYCOM 1/50 during the entire 2010–2017 period. It was applied separately in two sub-regions (Appendix Fig. 17), west and east of 84°W to focus on the evolution of CubAN “A” and “B” eddies that usually are formed and evolve over these two areas, respectively (Kourafalou et al. 2017). One eddy that satisfies the four constrains (with the highest SSH) is identified along each sub-region for each day in order to highlight the main anticyclonic eddy that exists in the area west (CubAN “A”) and east (CubAN “B”) of the 84°W. It is noted that the centers presented in Appendix Fig. 17 do not necessarily refer to different eddies but also to the same eddy that served the four constrains during a sequence of days. So, the number of centers does not represent the total number of eddies but the days of eddy evolution during each year. The SSH values were also used as a metric of eddy magnitude; high SSH levels represent strong eddies, while SSH values closer to zero are associated with weaker anticyclonic eddies. The same detection tool was also used to locate eddies with high negative SSH values and anti-clockwise currents, representing the cyclonic eddies that mainly evolve over the northern Straits (Kourafalou and Kang 2012).
Centers of the anticyclonic eddies, as computed daily west (CubAN “A”) and east (CubAN “B”) of the 84°W meridian from the GoM-HYCOM 1/50 simulated fields for each year during the 2010–2017 period. The color scale (in upper left panel) represents the sea surface height (SSH; m) of the eddy centers
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Androulidakis, Y., Kourafalou, V., Le Hénaff, M. et al. Gulf Stream evolution through the Straits of Florida: the role of eddies and upwelling near Cuba. Ocean Dynamics 70, 1005–1032 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-020-01381-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-020-01381-5