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Webb & de Cuevas 2002
Webb, D.J. and de Cuevas, B.A. (2002). An Ocean Resonance in the Southeast Pacific. Geophysical Research Letters 29: doi: 10.1029/2001GL014259. issn: 0094-8276.

Satellite Altimeter observations of sea surface height show an extensive region of high variability in the Southeastern Pacific which previous studies have suggested is a Rossby wave trapped by topography. Here we investigate the feature using results from a high-resolution global ocean model. We calculate the empirical orthogonal modes and find that 29% of the SSH variability is due to a single mode. We correlate the time series of the mode with the local Ekman pumping and find that the correlation is largest when the wind curl is averaged over a region roughly the size of the mode. We calculate the response function relating the two time series and find that it is dominated by a resonance at zero frequency with a decay time of about two days. We conclude that the feature is a highly damped geostrophic mode of the ocean.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, Physical, Sea level variations, Oceanography, General, Numerical modeling, Information Related to Geographic Region, Pacific Ocean
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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