Ageostrophic fluctuations in Cozumel Channel

Abstract

The Cayman Current flows to the west, and most of it turns north as it approaches the Yucatan coast, producing a persistent northwesterly flow on both sides of Cozumel Island. The transport between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel Island (i.e., through the Cozumel Channel) is close to 5 Sverdrups in the mean, with velocities at midchannel ranging from 20 to 180 cm/s. A recent study of the subinertial flow and pressure difference across Cozumel Channel by Chávez et al. (2003) showed the existence of periods lasting over 1 month with large 3‐day to 1‐week ageostrophic fluctuations. The flow was measured again for a year, now at four locations around Cozumel Island, including two instruments along the axis of the channel 8.6 km apart, thus allowing estimations of the along‐channel velocity gradients. The new measurements reveal that, as suggested in the previous study, the centripetal or curvature acceleration of the current is the most significant contribution in the departure from geostrophy. Indeed, the curvature is, at times, so large that the pressure difference implies a geostrophic flow in the direction opposite to that of the actual flow; that is, the curvature is anticyclonic with amplitude in Rossby number larger than unity. Measures of the intensity of suprainertial variations, in pressure differences and velocity, show that periods of ageostrophic fluctuations are consistently much richer in high‐frequency fluctuations than periods of nearly geostrophic behavior. Nonetheless, the large‐scale Reynolds stresses play an insignificant role throughout.